Hello everybody! Long time no write! (sorry about that)

I've been trying to finish up A Candle for the Future before tackling this one full speed ahead. That plus I have another one that I've been writing that I like even more than Candles and Poster Boys. I haven't published any of the chapters for it yet...but oooh I'm excited...

Anyways, Here is the most recent installment of Poster Boys... Tell me what you think!

On with the fic!


Ch 4


Wufei woke up early that morning and walked around the room carefully. Heero was asleep, but the sound of his breathing shifted, alerting Wufei that Heero knew he was awake and moving around and was not considered a big enough threat to wake up. Wufei took his black fluffy towel and wrapped it around his waist and took his shower kit down the hall.

The bathroom itself was tiled and had a clean appearance which probably wouldn't last with approximately fifty boys on the floor. The crowd of students would come back tomorrow and with that thought Wufei sighed and hung his towel up on a hook and turned on the shower tap. He of course has sandals on as he did not want to contract any foot fungi that the other boys might have had and therefore spread throughout the shower.

Wufei let the hot water scald him as he washed away the shampoo and then inserted conditioner into his hair. He had let his hair grow past his shoulders by about four inches and he was definitely thinking he should cut it very soon. He would probably have to with the whole modeling for the Preventers mission. That is if you could call it a mission.

Wufei shut the water off and stood there for a minute before retrieving his towel and drying himself off. There was no point in worrying about the changes his life would go through. He had said it himself yesterday that once a mission was accepted, he did not back out. No matter what.

Wufei headed back to the room and unlocked the door and got dressed. It was six am, still rather early to be up. Wufei put on some sweat pants and didn't bother with the shirt as his hair would have made it wet anyways. He grabbed a book, his laptop and cell-phone and headed out into the hallway. He didn't want to disturb Heero.

Sitting with his back to the cool wall and his legs stretched out forwards, Wufei opened his laptop and clicked on the email icon to read a message from the one and only Trowa.

---
From: TBarton

To: WChang

Subject: Day 2

Hello –

I will be there to pick you up at 8:30. Dress is casual.

There is a meeting for you to attend at 9:00 am.

See you tomorrow.

- Trowa.

End Message

---

Wufei sighed and shut down his laptop setting it down on the floor next to him. There was no need to respond and Heero would be up soon enough to get ready. With that thought Wufei opened his book and began reading his book. It was a book that was part of his fantasy genre stash that no one knew about. A guilty pleasure that he did not care to advertise.

Like clock work at exactly seven the door opened and emerged from within was a Heero carrying a shower kit with a navy towel wrapped around his waist heading off towards the bathroom. Wufei stopped reading his book and sat in the hall staring down either end. There were no windows or outlets for natural light to enter into the hall and there were no clocks.

Wufei thought for a moment. If you had no way of telling time and you just stayed confined in that hallway. The sleeping schedule you had would go so out of whack. Humans naturally have twenty five hour internal clocks. The whole twenty four hour thing really wasn't natural. That was of course according to some scientific experiment in the nineteen-something. Wufei couldn't remember and it didn't really matter.

Wufei got up from his seat on the floor and dropped his stuff on his desk before collapsing onto his bed. Wufei just didn't know what to do with himself. He was rather bored. Usually he would simply go back to sleep, but then Sally was told him 'you shouldn't do that because it's a sign of depression.' What did Sally know?

Wufei rolled onto his back and draped his forearms over his eyes, just laying there sinking into the two soft mattress. He heard the key in the lock and Heero enter the room, but didn't bother moving. Heero would tell him when it was time to get moving. It was an annoying habit of his.

Listening without really meaning to Wufei heard as Heero toweled off and then slid into his clothes and sat in front of his computer. He was probably accessing the email account and discovering that Wufei had less then half an hour to get dressed and get breakfast.

Cue one Heero Yuy.

"Wufei.", he remained silent, "You have a half an hour to get dressed and have a nutritional breakfast before Trowa arrives."

Wufei shifted slightly signaling he heard before having the almost tangible eyebrow quirk on him. "I will go retrieve sustenance. Get dressed." The door opened and then shut behind Heero. Wufei sighed and then rolled and let his feet touch the ground. He got up and pulled on some jeans and his sneakers. Just as he was pulling a rather tight, black t-shirt over his head Heero walked in carrying a bag. The bag contained bananas and oranges. He offered one to Wufei who shook his head and grabbed his jacket.

Heero nodded his head towards the door and Wufei lead the way down to the parking lot where they were to meet Trowa. Heero had already wolfed down an orange and was standing next to Wufei quietly as they watched a car roll in. Trowa opened the door of the back seat, letting them into the car.

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Heero and Wufei had been waiting outside the thick cherry wood doors waiting for someone to allow them into the board room as well as to tell them what they had to do here. Heero for the first ten minutes observed and catalogued every person that came within a twenty foot radius of them, as well as observe the location of every single security camera in the facility. He had soon become bored of his observations and turned his attention to Wufei.

Wufei had simply decided to sit there and take it. What was the point of attempting to understand why Heero was watching him for the last five minutes? Not that Wufei had acknowledged that he knew Heero was doing it. Wufei had actually been sitting there with his eyes closed the entire time, but he could feel the weight of Heero's stare and refused to acknowledge the action. Wufei felt a sudden shift of attention off him and opened his eyes just as the large cherry doors decided to open up, revealing Quatre business tycoon extraordinaire and considered to be the ranked in the top five bachelors in the earth sphere. To bad the people who ranked them didn't know about Trowa.

"If you two will please join us now we are ready for you." Quatre smiled one of his million watt smiles as Heero and Wufei passed him and were presented a seat next to Trowa at a long sleek desk, with several people around the extending sides. Quatre sat down at the head of the table with Wufei, Heero and Trowa on his left and the rest of the table was occupied by people from Quatre's company. "Well, now we can get started."

Quatre quickly started out with the introductions, "This is the Preventer's agents Wufei Chang and Heero Yuy." He smiled and pointed to each in turn and then waved to the rest of the occupants of the room, "Welcome. These are the heads of all the marketing departments for my company. In particular this is Judy Drake," a woman in her low thirties smiled sharply at the two of them, "and this is Carl Trast." The man next to Quatre nodded politely before looking down at the papers in front of him. "This meeting is simply for the sole factor of selling the Preventer agency to the younger generations. This does not mean action figures or T-shirts unless the people want them, and then we can discuss it with Lady Une and I find it highly doubtful that action figures will occur. For the next couple of months, almost all of what you will go through will be assigned to you by these people gathered at the table."

The room was silent and Quatre had the tiniest of smirks forming at the very far corner of his lips but managed to somehow maintain an angelic and sunny disposition. Heero was perfectly still, simply waiting for this board of marketing to tell him what he should do. Wufei simply folded his hands over his chest and looked across the table at the woman, Judy, who was staring at him with bright green eyes and a definite carnivore, jackalish type of grin and stated, "Continue."

"Okay then lets begin." Pictures flashed up on a wide screen at the other end of the room and the people all sat up in the seats staring at them. Wufei was fine with what he saw leaned back slightly in his chair and closed his eyes lightly listening, but not truly paying attention to what would go on around him for the next couple of hours. Heero had been sitting rigid since he found that his mission was coming from these people and he wanted to know everything they were going to say.

The pictures displayed were the profile shots and the body shots that had been taken of them yesterday. There was silence except for scratching pens on notepads or electronic data entering depending on the worker's choice. This happened for twenty minutes, until Quatre stated, "Okay."

"The uniforms need better color combinatio-"

"The physiques are good except for--"

"I think the hair designs need tweaking and next time touch ups----"

"Tighter fitting--"

"Make them more appealing by--"

Quatre held up his hand, "Hold on. Begin writing down your ideas, run them by me, then begin concept ideas with your groups if approved as necessary. Wufei and Heero if you please follow me out we need to make a careful study of you in social situations and such."

"No." Wufei smiled at Heero's bluntness. Quatre blanched slightly before recovering, "Why ever not Heero?"

Heero looked directly at Quatre and stated, "I find it important to remain here and assimilate all suggestions into the overall mission attempt in order to function properly as a model Preventer operative."

Trowa smiled and placed his hand on Heero's arm. "That would give you inaccurate information to go off of. You should wait until there is a report for you to use. Currently we need to evaluate Wufei's and your social skills and other such things."

Quatre shrugged, "The meeting is dismissed. We'll just stay here." Most of the employees on the marketing board got up from their seats and left the room." Judy and Carl were among the people to stay, Judy decided to stay just because she was interested in the outcome.

Carl looked up from his papers finally looking the two over. "Okay here are some preliminary questions, this will more then likely need to go much more in depth." He sighed, "Here is a situation. A 13-17 year old boy recognizes you as a Gundam Pilot. He takes your picture and asks for your autograph. What do you do?"

Carl indicated Heero first, who readily launched into his explanation of what would occur, "As the boy approaches for the signature, I would obtain the camera delete the photo from the memory banks or the negatives depending on the type of camera, tell him that he is a threat to security as the photos he may have taken could have fallen in the hands of the syndicate and not distribute the autograph, as it may be forged easily depending on the child's skill and once again possibly threaten security. If he were to repeat his action a verbal threat may also be accompanied with the removal of photographs." The room was silent, except for some pen scratching and key typing. Quatre had a smile on his face and Trowa was smirking.

Carl finished his writing and nodded to Wufei, "Same situation."

Wufei snorted. "It is hypothetical and would not happen."

Judy jumped in on this one. The red haired woman had streaks of purple running through her hair along with her black rimmed glasses, she looked like she had a fighter's spirit, yet sophisticated and intelligent at the same time, "Well that's why we ask you your actions in this situation Mr. Chang."

Trowa smiled, "That's not what he meant by hypothetical"

Carl frowned slightly, "Explain."

Wufei nodded slightly, "Sir we are Gundam pilots. This would never happen because we would know that the boy had a camera long before he pulled it out. We would know if he recognized us by his reactions and be gone long before he would truly realize who we were. He would never catch a picture of us because we're that good. We dodged bullets in a war, we've learned to read people and fill out a suspect report on every person we meet in a room. You for example Carl have a bottle of pills in your brief case, the closet thing to a weapon you have on you right now is a ballpoint pen, You have a cell phone for work in your left pants pocket along with the pager, while in your right hand pocket is your cell phone for home. Judy you are colony born, and have an accent that pinpoints you to L2 or L1 cluster. Judging by your personality and attitude you are most likely from L1 as you are rough around the edges under the intelligent exterior, but you do not have the true roughness of an L2 colony born. I can continue." Wufei glared at Carl who was staring at him wide-eye. He shook his head. "That is why it's hypothetical, it just won't happen."

"Okay. What are the first ten things you do in the morning? Mr. Yuy first."

"First check the status of the room to look for tampering or infiltration. Two observe the other occupant of the room to check status. Three, take the safety off my gun and relocate it from under my pillow to the waistband of my shorts. Four, check my laptop for any assignments or e-mail notifications of mission updates. Five, complete all hygiene tasks. Six, Check laptop for any mission updates. Seven, morning workout. Eight, complete hygiene cycle with shower. Nine, Attend to any nutritional needs. Ten check laptop for updates."

Carl finished taking his notes and tapped his pen on his paper, thinking to himself, "You seem fixated on this laptop." Heero shifted, "Why do you think that--"

"Sorry to interrupt." Wufei glared at Carl. "Sir to get the information that you appear to be seeking would take extreme psychoanalysis of both of us. Of Yuy, because of the perfectly honest and straight answers with little emotional depth to them. Of myself because I'm extremely stubborn and wish to keep my private life private. As you will not get the answers by running us through some questions in the three hours we have this room for, is there anything else you would like to cover?"

"Well then we will also need to study your ability to cope in social situations, your political correctness, your manners."

Wufei's eyebrow lifted, "How will you test this?"

Quatre smiled, "That's where I step in. You'll be accompanying me to several of my functions. As we will need you to get along in several different types of crowds we will be bringing in other experts as well, later on."

Trowa smiled politely getting up from his seat, "Anyways, if you'll excuse us we are done here."

Wufei and Heero followed Trowa out of the room as Quatre waved good bye to his staff members and then followed them out. "Let's go to lunch."

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Lunch turned out to be a small dinner about eight blocks from WEI's building. Everything within the group of four was going as common place as it usually was. Quatre was chatting to make up for the groups overall silence. Wufei was silent and obviously moping Heero was silent but paying attention to what Quatre had to say, occasionally swiveling his head around to watch a customer and make sure there were no threats within the building. Trowa would nod according to where he thought it was appropriate and sometimes insert small phrases. Everything was normal up to the point where Heero went to the bathroom and it was just the three left at the table. Quatre stopped mid-sentence which caught Wufei's attention.

Two angry light blue orbs were staring at him and he lifted his eyebrow causing a whispered hiss, "That's IT Wufei. All you've been on this trip is sullen and grumpy and I'm sick of it. This is beyond normal standards for you as you usually have intelligent comments or opinions to add to a conversation. Your silence and your actions of disdain are highly irritating. You were extremely rude back in the office! I know you can be diplomatic and polite; you'd have to be to be the heir to the Dragon Clan anyways! Why is this assignment so hard for you?" Quatre was still staring at the unmoving Wufei. Nothing could be read from him, not body language or emotion. Nothing.

Wufei got up from his seat, bowed slightly, before stating in a monotone voice. "Thank you for treating myself and my partner. The hospitality has been superb. Have a good afternoon, Quatre Winner. Trowa Barton." With a nod to each Wufei turned and left the dinner.

"Now he's being polite just to piss me off and he knows it." Trowa snickered as Quatre glared at Wufei's back through the window as he walked down the street.

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Wufei heard the presence on the other side of the door before the key was inserted into the lock. Heero walked in and put his jacket on a hanger and in the cabinet. He then sat on his bed and stared at Wufei.

"Is there something you want Heero?"

Heero paused, and then proceeded in a neutral voice, as to not cause Wufei to be angry, "Why did you leave from lunch today?"

"I felt like going for a walk." Heero nodded. Wufei laughed in his head. Heero would be taking it as face value due to the fact that after analyzing the recently given information, he would find that Wufei would have no reason to be dishonest. Heero was so easy to read sometimes.

"Was your desire to walk related to the… discourteous actions you achieved in the board meeting?" Then again sometimes he wasn't.

"And if it was?" The room was somehow amplifying the silence.

Heero stood and kneeled next to the side of Wufei's bed. Wufei who was lying on his back flipped onto his side to face Heero at a range of eight inches. Heero's monotone emerged again, "May I state an observation?" Wufei nodded, might as well face one of the main critics now. "You do not appear to be enjoying yourself in anyway. This as a result appears to be impacting your mission performance. The manifesting of your disdain for the actions that we must complete as it is part of our overall mission, appears to be the cause. As such, I feel that this may be the first mission for the Preventers that we will not complete with full success and use of our full capabilities."

"So you are concerned about the mission."

"Yes. I believe that you must put out your full effort."

Black orbs stared at Heero as he appeared to be frozen in place. "What's the motivation?"

Heero frowned "A mission is an assignment to be completed, you need no motivati-"

"Yes Yuy, I do. You may need none, but I do. I completed missions during the war to ensure justice and obtain peace. I complete missions for the Preventers to ensure the peace remains. But this 'mission' as it is called has no motivation. Peace and justice do not rely on it. You want me to work my best. I need motivation for putting myself through such demeaning crap they're going to put us through. There going to send us to stylists and spas and such, and I can't help but be irritated by that fact."

Wufei rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. Heero hadn't moved from his kneeling position. Maybe thinking and moving at the same time was too much for him. "What about a challenge?" Wufei's eyes opened slightly and he looked sideways at Heero.

"A challenge?" there was a note of mocking in his voice

Heero nodded. Wufei eyes narrowed slightly, "And what would be the prize?" Heero was quiet for a moment, thinking.

"A favor from the other person."

Wufei propped himself on his elbow. "What do you mean?"

"If you have a favor to use, you can ask me for aid and vice versa. Or in your case if you do not wish to complete a tasks, you can ask me to cover for you, create excuses, thus using your favor. I'm relatively certain that all the small steps to the final project goal may not be necessary." Wufei lay back down on his bed. Heero still hadn't moved.

"I agree to the proposed deal."

Heero nodded quickly, "It will be based on weekly performance, once the tasks for the mission are obtained. Whoever performs better will have a favor saved."

"Agreed."

"Good." Heero moved back to his bed checking his laptop. He stated, "Remember, the students are moving in tomorrow."


TBC...


Well! I hope you enjoyed... Please let me no what you think! I really apreciate reviews!

Ciao,

-Silverserpent