Chapter 6

Another shift had passed. Trowa had woken Duo from his nap with a sharp whistle and a demand for a pressure adjustment. Apparently he'd had to call a few times because he complained about how slow the boiler room was. When Duo explained that he was the only one working at the moment, the pilot had nearly exploded.

"What the hell happened to Heero?"

"I sent him to get some soup into Wufei before the crazy Chinaman dies from being shot," Duo said.

"Fuck," Trowa snapped, and Duo's eyebrows nearly reached his hairline at hearing that word.

"I take it you don't mean that literally," he replied.

"No, but I damn well mean that was a damn fool thing to do. Captain's going to kill him."

"What are you talking about?"

But Trowa wasn't feeling like answering questions, "How long ago did you send our engine mechanic to play nursemaid?"

"About two hours."

There was a loud clicking noise from the tube, and then a long silence. Just when Duo was starting to wonder if the tube had broken down, there was another click and Trowa's voice was back, "Okay, looks like Captain Howard didn't kill him, but he might as well have. I'm having Quatre send him down as soon as he can. You can have a turn playing nursemaid if it's so important to you."

"I really hate it when folks don't give me a clear story." Duo snapped back.

"Poor pitiful you," Trowa said, "Now give me 10 millimeters more pressure all around before Heero shows up."

Duo grumbled but did as he'd been asked. When Heero hadn't returned by the time he finished shoveling coal, he decided the other man wasn't going to be coming by in the immediate future so he set to work trying to figure out what was wrong with the secondary boiler. He'd thought it was just a reservoir for the primary, but now that he looked more closely he saw that the big copper tank was actually a large thermal tank. It was supposed to be used to keep a ready supply of fairly hot water on hand so the pressure of the steam system could be adjusted without having to always shovel coal or blow off steam with the valves. If the secondary tank were working, the boiler room would be manageable by one person, rather than the current setup that took every minute of waking attention from two people.

He just about figured out what had been done to disable the system when he realized that he was tired enough to be counting some valves twice. So reluctantly, and still without any sign of Heero, Duo retreated back to the jumpseat and fell into a fitful sleep.

He woke to another whistle from the pilot, and it was back to work. He had just scraped the coal shovel on the edge of the stove for the third time when Heero returned. He was dressed in his wrap and long pants again, and moving stiffly, but he took the shovel from Duo without a word.

A vague memory that Heero had been in trouble filtered into Duo's awareness, "You okay?" he asked.

"Aa," Heero replied, "Go get some sleep before you fall into the stove."

Blearily Duo nodded, "Yeah, wouldn't want any Hansel and Gretel," he mumbled and then he was curling up with the blanket right in the corner of the boiler room and falling into an exhausted sleep.

The next time Duo woke he was laying in the small bunk, with a bowl of cold stew at his elbow. He ate without hardly noticing what he was putting in his mouth, and then he returned to the boiler room. Heero was back to shoveling coal, his jacket crumpled in a heap on the jumpseat and his feet looking surprisingly small peeking out of his full legged pants. The chain had been re-attached to his flight harness, and the metal swung with each shovel load of fuel. When he heard Duo stepping into the room he turned, and the angry red marks on his back almost glowed in the light from the coal fire.

"You should still be sleeping," Heero said.

Duo shook his head, "So should you, probably. What the hell happened to your back?"

Heero scowled and turned back to the stove, "Captain Howard was not pleased that Wufei was hurt on my account."

Duo stepped closer and gently turned Heero's back to the light so he could survey the damage. The skin was only broken in one or two places, and it was clear by the way the welts skipped that the harness had offered some protection. As far as whippings went, it wasn't the worst the cowboy had seen, but "That's still gotta hurt like a bitch."

Heero shrugged out of his grip almost petulantly and turned back to the stove, "Nothing I didn't earn."

"Shove that," Duo said, rolling his eyes, but he fished around in one of the tool bins for a spare wrench and crawled behind the secondary boiler to get a better look at what had been done to it, "That geezer does know that slavery is illegal these days, right?"

"What part of being shanghaied made you think this was a legal ship?" Heero said, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation for a while.

When the silence had stretched long enough Duo was feeling antsy, he decided to try a new topic, "How's Wufei?"

There was a pause in the sound of the shovel being inserted in the coal bin, "He will live," Heero said. "He thanks you for sending the soup and should be back on his feet this evening."

"Ha," Duo said, "told you it'd do him good."

"Aa," Heero agreed.

The next couple of days continued much like that, with small bursts of conversation followed by long bouts of silence. Whatever camaraderie and flirtation had been blossoming had evaporated in the aftermath of Zechs's attack on The Dutchman. During the shifts they shared, Heero watched the gauges and valves and shoveled coal as Trowa demanded. Duo crawled around any part of the system not too hot to touch and began to slowly untangle the mess of pipes, valves and blockages that had been left by the previous mechanic. While putting the crazy system together had no doubt taken months, it was thankfully a simple task to reverse what had been done and get the room back up and running.

Duo wasn't sure how much time had passed when Wufei suddenly reappeared as the one delivering meals. Up until that point the mysterious Quatre, a shortish figure in a flight cap and goggles, had been dropping off trays of soup or gruel. Duo had been disturbed the first time he was there to see the food delivered because the other man never spoke a word or even seemed to acknowledge him. It was a great relief to the braided cowboy when Wufei appeared with a tray of food in one arm, and his other in a sling.

"Wufei!" he whispered excitedly, "How're you feeling? I heard you tried to eat lead?"

Wufei smirked, "No, I merely thought a pierced arm would be most fetching. Where is Heero, he said you were worried about me?"

Duo nodded to the curtained bunk, "He's been running ragged, so I'm letting him sleep in a bit. I'll wake him up in a minute." Duo then paused, hesitant about what he next wanted to say, "Look, Wufei, can I talk to you a bit before he wakes up?

"Of course," Wufei said, and he took a seat cross legged on the floor of the corridor, "What's on your mind?"

"It's about Heero," Duo said, "I don't know if you've realized, and I know it's not really my place to say, but some one's gotta tell you or nothing will get done and -"

"Just spit it out."

"I'm pretty sure he's got some feelings fo you. Strong ones." When Wufei's only reaction was to raise an eyebrow Duo pressed on, wondering how the other man could be so oblivious, "I mean I think he... Damn it I don't want to say he "fancies" you because that just sounds frivolous, but... He cares about you. A lot. Might even be love."

"He told you this?" Wufei asked, an inscrutable look on his face.

"Not exactly, but if you'd seen him when you got hurt..."

Wufei finally couldn't hold it any more and burst out laughing, though fortunately his quiet chuckle wasn't enough to wake Heero from his deep sleep.

"I hardly think Heero's emotions are a laughing matter," Duo scolded, "If you're going to hurt him, I'll just finish what Zechs started!"

Wufei got control of himself enough to pat Duo on the arm and shake his head, "No, no, you misunderstand. You misunderstand quite spectacularly! Heero is like... Well he is most like a younger brother. And even if he admires me, he is not the type to chase a hopeless fantasy."

"Hopeless?" Duo said, "You mean you don't see how attractive and kind he is?"

"Of course I do," Wufei said, "But only in a brotherly way. Besides, Heero knows I am married. He's even met my wife."

Duo blinked at him, "You're married?"

Wufei smirked, "Oh yes. She's quite a good pilot, but Captain Howard won't have women on his ship, and neither of us takes orders from the other. So she runs her own all women's crew, and we arrange to meet in Singapore every few months to catch up."

"Oh," Duo said, not sure what else to add.

"Yes. Oh." Wufei looked smug, "I advise you to rely on what you observe from Heero in the future. Not whatever non-existant emotions you attribute to him."

"I'm never living this down, am I?" Duo asked.

"If you mean, will I let you forget? No, never." Wufei said, "Now go wake Heero, I want to take a look at his back and make sure he eats."

"Yes sir," Duo said.

The shift that followed was a surprisingly good one. With Wufei back up and about, Heero seemed to perk up, but when Duo watched their interactions over the meal he was surprised to see only what Wufei had said was there. Two young men who cared about each other, but might as well have been partners or brothers - not lovers. When Heero listened to Wufei, it was with the air of someone seeking advice rather than the fawning of a courtier. Duo found himself inexplicably pleased with this development, and so he returned to work on the secondary boiler with an unusually light step and open mind. It turned out to be just what was needed.

Duo hadn't realized how close he was to untangling the mess of pipes until halfway through the shift when he discovered all that was left was to run a connection between the back up boiler and the main outlet shaft. Of course, that meant finding the place where the pipe had been sealed off originally, and then running the connection while everything was filled with boiling hot steam. Stymied, he sat back in the jumpseat to try and think of a solution.

"Have you finished whatever it was you're doing?" Heero asked.

"Mostly," Duo said, "I just need to figure out how to hook the secondary boiler up to the main system, and then we should have this working again."

"You can get the secondary working as a heat sink again?" Heero asked, stunned.

"Well, yeah," Duo said, "it'd be working now, except we need a way to feed steam between the two pipe systems. Otherwise it's just redundant."

"One second!" Heero said, suddenly animated. He turned to a small red valve low on one side of the stove and turned it with the help of a spare wrench. A few seconds later Trowa's angry voice sounded from the speaking tube, demanding to know where his power had gone.

Heero ignored the complaints entirely, and flipped open a panel to reveal another valve Duo had never seen before. This one was a large wheel, and Heero's back strained visibly as he hauled on it. The mechanism was old, but thankfully unrusted, and soon Heero had it turned several notches. He stepped back and eyed a few of the pressure gauges that had flatlined when he adjusted the red valve, "Why didn't that work?"

Duo walked up next to him and casually flipped a dead man's catch on the connecting pipe, "That should do it."

The needles of the gauges began to rise, and then steady themselves at their designated levels. There was a muffled shout from the speaking tube that seemed to be both surprised and pleased. And suddenly Duo found himself with an arm full of Heero and the other man pressing their lips together fiercely. Though the move was unexpected, Duo had enough sense to steady his feet and respond to the kiss before they fell over.

"Heero?" He gasped when they finally parted.

"You fixed it! You really fixed it!" The exotic angles of Heero's face shown more clearly when he smiled, "You have no idea - Duo - how much - Thank you!"

"Uh, you're welcome?" Duo said, surprised.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Heero asked, confusion curbing his enthusiasm for a moment.

"Apparently made you very happy?" Duo ventured.

"Happy?" Heero said, "With the secondary boiler running, we only need one person working in the boiler room, and they can take a full shift of sleep! Proper sleep, Duo!"

Duo found himself smiling at Heero's excitement despite himself, "Well, if you're that pleased about everything why don't you go take a nap? I'm sure I can handle things here if Trowa needs anything."

Heero looked momentarily torn, "Are you sure?"

Duo rolled his eyes, "I'm sure. I've had a couple days off from shoveling coal, I'm sure a couple of hours won't kill me. Go get a nap."

Heero graced Duo with another brief smile and then made his way to the bunk. Duo sighed fondly after him, and then wondered what they were going to do with all their new-found free time.