Part One

The CPD headquarters was on the opposite side of the colony from the spaceport.

Duo had tried to get into the driver's seat of the Mustang, but after a small struggle against Heero he found himself riding in the passenger seat in angry silence.

It's my car. My leg is fine. He glared at Heero, who was ignoring him for the task of driving through the colony's lunch hour traffic. Heero's argument had been that Duo would exacerbate his injury by having to depress the clutch while he drove. He looked at the traffic and frowned. He would have had to go in and out of first gear continuously with this kind of traffic. He frowned. So maybe Heero had a point.

He tapped a finger against the image of a Cobra printed into the black leather on the center console. It felt strange riding as a passenger in his own car, especially without music.

He leaned forward and opened the glove compartment and began digging through its contents. He had a small collection of cassette tapes inside. The car had come with a cassette player and a handful of tapes that had long since expired. Magnetic media was said to only last thirty years, and when Duo had found them they had been completely useless. However, when he visited Hilde two years ago on L2 a guy came into the shop looking for some obscure parts and they had struck up a friendly conversation. It turned out that the guy had specialized in recovering old magnetic media and that his hobby was restoring and rerecording old cassettes. Duo had decided to keep the player in the car for authenticity and had paid the guy to recover the tapes that had come with the car. Doing so had been an education in American rock bands from the 70's to the late 80's. Fleetwood Mac, The Cars, Boston, STYX, Blue Oyster Cult, America, Hendrix, Heart, Kansas… Duo had fallen in love with albums he had never had known existed.

He dug through the collection, looking for his favorite one. "Moving Pictures" by Rush (AD1981). He found it on the bottom and carefully fished it out. The clear plastic outer casing had a few light cracks in it, but he could still see the cover art. The picture represented a triple entendre. The first was literally movers carrying giant pictures. The second was the people standing nearby watching them work, being emotionally "moved" by the pictures. The third was represented on the back of the album where the entire scene was revealed to be a set for a motion picture film.

He pulled the white cassette out of the case and slid it into the tape deck. Heero glanced down as he did.

"What is that?" The Japanese agent enquired before turning back to focus on the traffic ahead of them.

"It's an existential experience," Duo said in his best mysterious voice before hitting the sideward triangle that's vertex was pointing to the right. It was the button he had figured out made it play. With the sudden blast and crescendo of electronica and the throb of a drumbeat the first track, "Tom Sawyer," belted out of updated speakers.

"A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
He reserves the quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river"

"Is that supposed to be a woman singing?" Heero asked. Duo scoffed.

"What? No, that is Geddy Lee. He's amazing."

Heero shrugged, apparently unimpressed and downshifted as he took a right turn onto a side road. They were passing Duo's apartment and working gradually toward the headquarters. Duo relaxed and stretched his legs in front of him and looked out the window. The colony seemed more alive today. People were beginning to forget about the bombing and the sense of impending danger was starting to lift. He frowned at the thought and wondered about what hidden darkness was lurking just beyond the edges of their fragile and temporary peace.

The next track, "Red Barchetta," started to play. Duo listened to the lyrics closely and then stole a glance at Heero. The other young man was gripping the steering wheel tightly and seemed to be lost in thought. Whether he was thinking about the song or not, Duo couldn't be certain.

The original story of the song was about a future where sport cars are illegal. The narrator's uncle keeps a red convertible hidden in the countryside. The narrator sneaks out there to take it for a drive and is intercepted by a "gleaming alloy car" that begins to chase him. Eventually it ends with the narrator making a narrow escape and returning to the hiding place.

Every time this song came on Duo couldn't help but think of Deathscythe and the other Gundams: beautiful, amazing technologies that had the ability to do so many wonderful and horrible things and were now banned from existence. He wished he could sneak off to the countryside and find his old suit again and take it for a joyride just one more time.

They pulled up to the station just as "Red Barchetta" ended. Heero parked and turned off the car before turning to Duo. "You don't have any weapons on you, right?"

Duo smiled. "Nah, but maybe you should frisk me just to make sure." Now that Duo knew that Heero wasn't involved with Relena anymore he didn't need to worry about stepping on anyone's else's toes. He reached out to grab Heero's arm and pulled him across the center console towards himself and kissed him. Heero didn't resist him at first but after a few seconds he pulled back and narrowed his eyes.

"Be professional," Heero said coldly before exiting the car. Duo couldn't help but smile. Typical Heero: focused on the task at hand, shenanigans later. He figured he would behave and go along with the program, especially since Heero was letting him play Preventer for the afternoon.

Duo exited the car, grabbed his crutches and hopped along after Heero and into the CPD HQ. A long, high desk greeted them with an assistant deputy hidden behind it. The man was young and a little too short to be standing behind such a formidable barrier. He peered over the top of it at them as they approached. Heero pulled his badge out from his jacket pocket and slid it across the top of the desk to the deputy who took it and inspected it casually before shoving it back at him. "How can I help you gentlemen?"

"I need to look at your records."

The assistant deputy seemed annoyed. Duo remembered dealing with plenty of local police departments as a Preventer and the result was always the same. They didn't like outside agencies poking their nose around their facility. He couldn't blame them for feeling that way. He would have hated some guy to show up and start rummaging around his desk questioning everything he did, too. The deputy pulled out a tablet and began tapping on it with a stylus before he handed it to Heero.

"Sign and date. Both you and your partner."

Duo watched Heero scribble his name onto the tablet before handing him the stylus. He did the same and resisted the urge to drop a joke about holy matrimony and courthouse weddings.

Professional, Duo. Stay professional, he mused as he followed the Japanese agent to a back room they had been told housed the protected directory servers. Heero sat down at the terminal and took out the flash drive, inserted it into the terminal's tower and began searching names on the folded piece of paper in his pocket. Duo leaned over his shoulder and watched as Heero started copying entire files on students he had seen around campus. Then a name and a mug shot illuminated the screen.

"Wait a minute. That's Professor Miles. What the hell?" Duo leaned in and squinted at the small print beneath the photo. It was a name Duo had never seen before. Aaron Bradcliffe. That wasn't his name. Or at least the name Duo knew the guy by. He was one of the lead Professors in the Undergraduate Science department. He didn't know much about him aside from that his computer seemed to get messed up quite a bit.

"You know him?" Heero asked over his shoulder as he started to copy the file.

"Not really, I've just seen him around. Wufei thinks he is behind the bombing? What about the guy who confessed?"

Heero shrugged. "He didn't elaborate much, but he thinks that the kid who confessed was paid off. He thinks that the real culprit has connections to Quatre. You said something before about feeling like Quatre was trying to indirectly communicate with you. We are trying to make connections before assumptions, but we should consider the fact that Quatre may be in danger and under threat."

Duo frowned. He had thought it was odd Quatre had given him the file about the suspect who admitted to the bombing. How did Quatre get a hold of that? Wouldn't that be police property? And why did he give it to Duo, and not the security team on the campus or even Heero, who was still the only active member of the Preventers. "So you are saying he wants us to figure this out, but he doesn't want to be connected to the real information coming out?"

Heero just nodded and finished copying the files on the list. Duo frowned. "Then why wouldn't he just have one of his guys deliver a package to us with the entire truth? Why doesn't he leave us an anonymous letter or something?"

Heero shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't know much else himself."

Duo leaned against the back of Heero's chair. "Yeah, I guess that would make sense. Someone could be blackmailing him, you think?"

Heero shrugged again and turned the terminal off. "Maybe. We won't know until we find the real bomber, and then work our way through that suspect's connections. Somehow Quatre is connected. Once we figure that out, then we can pinpoint the threat and hopefully find what I came here to investigate in the process."

Duo nodded and watched as Heero stood up and started moving toward the exit. "So where to now?" Duo asked as he crutched along behind him.

"District Twelve."

Part Two

By the time they reached the distant Twelfth District they had listened to the entire first side of "Leftoverture" by Kansas (AD1976) and Duo had noticed that Heero was starting to get into it. The former Wing pilot seemed to be upshifting the car with just a little more oomph than before and he could have sworn he saw him tapping the steering wheel at one point. It was nice to see Heero doing something relatively normal for once. He decided to take it upon himself to introduce Heero to more of the world beyond Preventer assignments and missions whenever he could.

Duo smiled and leaned his elbow against the top edge of the passenger door and rested his head in hand and looked out the window again. The landscape had changed significantly. District Twelve was the wealthiest district on the colony and it showed. The sidewalks were wider, the streets smoother and the foliage growing on the side of the road was fancier. Instead of short, nondescript bushes like the college neighborhood had this district had enormous rose bushes and elegant willow trees flanking the streets.

"So, what exactly are we supposed to be looking for here?" Duo asked, still unsure about why they had come. "I thought the scan of the bomb threat here came up with no leads."

Heero looked down at the map on his phone before glancing sideways at him. "We are going to interview a former student Wufei says was friends with the bomber."

"Eh? Former student? Like what… he graduated or something?"

"No, he was expelled for poor performance."

Duo blinked. Now this was getting interesting. "So, you think he may have wanted revenge against someone on the campus? A professor?" This line of reasoning was similar to his thoughts in the quad a few days before. Heero had shrugged a shoulder and was staring forward, studying the road with an intense stare. Duo realized that he was slipping into what he lovingly liked to call "Mission Mode." He started talking less and becoming more introverted with his thoughts. Duo sighed and leaned back into his seat and tugged at the top of his slacks. The wound on his leg was starting to swell and if he didn't get ice or some ibuprofen soon it was going to start hurting like hell.

"You should stay in the car," Heero said out of nowhere. Duo cursed himself. Clearly the Japanese agent had seen him adjust himself and had caught on to the status of his leg.

"Oh no you don't. Don't you try to treat me like I am some sort of invalid. No way. I'm coming." Duo said forcefully. Heero didn't reply. He guided the car into a neighborhood and parked on the street it in front of an enormous two-story home. Duo was in awe. The front lawn was cut perfectly even and the landscaping looked like something off of a home and garden magazine. It almost seemed like a model home. Duo had a hard time believing that someone actually lived there. Heero had gotten out of the car and walked around to open the passenger side door for him. Duo hopped up on his crutches and fell into step with the Japanese agent who led the way to the front door and knocked loudly. There was no response. He tried again and waited for a few minutes before looking over his shoulder at Duo.

"I am going to check the back."

"What?" Duo whispered. "Wait! You can't just-" Heero vanished around the side of the house.

Duo frowned. What did Heero think he was going to find around the back of the house? Duo looked up at the corner awnings and edges of the roof. There was no way this place didn't have a closed circuit camera system. Duo had broken into plenty of places to know better, and a house this luxurious wouldn't have skimped on security.

Duo waited. He shifted his weight and applied a little pressure to his injured leg. The muscle around his wound began to throb heavily. He hissed under his breath and alleviated the pressure a bit and looked around himself. He saw a button beside the door. It was clearly a doorbell. He frowned and without thinking pushed it. He heard a musical chime sound from inside the house and saw the just beyond the frosted glass that surrounded the front door start to blink on and off.

What the…

He heard a rustle in the bushes next to him. Heero had materialized from them just as the door opened. A young man in his early twenties had opened the door. He was staring at them, clearly confused as to who they were. Heero took over and Duo just stood back and let him work.

"My name is Heero Yuy and I am an agent with the Preventers, an Earth-Sphere Investigation Organization." He began. The guy in the door started waving his hands around wildly in the air. He was poking himself on the top of the head and twitching his fingers quickly.

"Oh, I see." Heero said softly and then started waving his hands around in the air too. Duo blinked. What the heck were they doing? He watched them exchange a few flails before Heero turned to him. "He is deaf so we will need to use sign language."

Duo frowned. "I don't know sign language. Wait a minute, how do you know sign language?"

Heero gestured something to the young man who nodded and opened the door and motioned for them to enter the house. Duo followed hesitantly.

"I taught myself in hospital when I lost my voice. It was more efficient than paper and pencil," Heero replied as they were guided through an enormous entryway and into a room to the right that served as a sitting area. The young man gestured for them to sit and then vanished through a rounded archway.

Duo hopped over to the clearly antique couch and lowered himself carefully onto it, feeling suddenly very left out again. Heero sat down next to him and was silent. Duo saw him searching the room, assessing his surroundings. He frowned.

"Don't worry, I'll translate for you." Heero said. Evidently Heero was a psychic and could read Duo's mind. Either that or Duo had 'this fucking sucks' written across his face. The young man entered the room and had brought with him a small tray with three cups of coffee and a plate of shortbread cookies. Duo watched as Heero and the kid exchanged pleasantries, or what he assumed that was, and then went to town on the cookies. He wondered absently why rich people always served plain biscuits and snacks. They were rich enough to afford double chocolate chip cookies, so what was up dry shortbread?

"His name is Edward Pilazzo," Heero said as he was stoically gesturing back to the kid. Duo watched their conversation with interest as Heero moved his fingers and hands with expert precision. "He says he attended the college up until last year when failed out of his nuclear engineering program."

Duo's eyes widened. He looked over at the kid who was gesturing back to Heero with impassioned movements. Duo was surprised at how much emotion he could read in the language Edward was using as opposed to Heero's robotic conversation. Edward was using expressions, showing pain and frustration as his fingers danced in the air in front of him.

"He says he was romantically involved with another student, but then when they broke up he couldn't focus on his studies and failed." Heero was asking him a question. Duo had picked up on the gestures for "Who", "What", "Where" and "When" rather quickly considering Heero was using them quite a bit. He watched as Heero put his right thumb on his chin with his index finger extended and bent the finger twice. Edward had shifted in his seat and looked very uncomfortable before his fingers flexed and contorted out letters to spell a name.

"Naomi Cadance." Heero said aloud before continuing his questioning with his hands. Duo finished the last shortbread cookie and started sipping patiently at Heero's coffee since it was getting cold and Heero's hands were busy engaged in conversation in ASL. He couldn't let a good cup of coffee go to waste.

Finally Heero seemed to be wrapping things up. He and Edward both stood up and shook hands. Duo pulled himself up to a stand and groaned at the sudden burst of pain that had erupted in his thigh. Luckily only Heero heard him. The young man led them to the door, said his goodbyes and waved at Duo before closing the door on them. Duo grit his teeth and inched toward the car. His thigh was burning; the sensation had begun to sweep up his leg and into his groin.

"You're done for today," Heero said plainly as he stepped up beside him and slid an arm around his waist in attempt to take some of his body weight off of his leg. Duo was going to argue but knew he was right. He let Heero help him to the car and slumped heavily to a sit. He tried to elevate his leg as much as he could by propping his foot up on the dash. The classic car owner in him was screaming for him not to, but he really didn't have a choice.

"Naomi Cadance was one of the people they had scanned through the identity recognition software Quatre had developed. She also is a current student at the university and a resident of the dormitory that was involved in the bombing." Heero explained as Duo closed his eyes and braced himself in the seat as the occasional bump or dip in the road sent shockwaves through his leg. "Cadence is also the name of one of Quatre's main stockholders."

Duo was brought out of his anguish by that sudden fact. He looked over at Heero who had narrowed his eyes at the road, clearly searching the index of what Duo had always assumed was a photographic memory.

"No shit," Duo said as he braced his leg with his hands. "You want me to verify that when we get to the hotel?"

"No," Heero said plainly. Duo sucked his teeth, annoyed. "We need to change your dressing and I want you to elevate that leg. You may have an infection."

Duo rolled his eyes but didn't argue with him. Heero had years of experience with healing his own wounds and setting his own bones. The first time Duo had seen him do it he almost blew chunks. The guy had snapped his femur back in place, splinted it with a pair of wrenches and then hobbled off to repair his Gundam like it was nothing. If he was going to take advice from anyone about first aid it would be Heero.

They arrived at the hotel and made their way up to Duo's room. When he stepped inside Duo was immediately accosted by Milo. The cat was frantically meowing and rubbing around between his legs, obviously dismayed at being left alone for so long. Duo felt guilty, inched to the couch and sat down on it. He grabbed up the shaggy tabby and hugged him against his chest. Heero had moved into the kitchen and was rummaging around in the bag he had brought the food in the night before. He pulled out a roll of sterile bandage, cotton pads and an antibiotic cream. He heard him wash his hands before coming back.

"Lay down," Heero instructed. Duo frowned and reluctantly put the cat down and hopped over to the enormous bed. He dropped the slacks on the ground and carefully lowered himself to lie prone on the bed. Heero was unwrapping the sterile dressings and preparing to do the dressing change. He could feel his cool fingers pull the old bandage off and then felt him wipe away God knew what had built up on the stitches. "It doesn't look infected. You should keep it elevated for a while." Heero informed him as he worked with steady hands to change the dressing. He felt him circling his thigh with the bandage and then heard him leave the room and come back with a glass of water and an ibuprofen. He handed it to him and waited patiently while Duo took the pill. Finally he set the glass on the side table and went to sit at Duo's laptop and get back to work. Duo rested his head on his arms and watched him from the bedroom.

"Why don't you go back to school to be a surgeon?" Duo mumbled against his arms. He watched Heero dig into his pocket for the flash drive and open it on the laptop. He didn't reply. "You would be really good at it," Duo added. The Japanese agent shrugged and sighed. He didn't seem interested in talking about it. Duo yawned and buried his face into his arms. He heard a small meow from the head of the bed and felt Milo walk up to him on the mattress and curl up against his back.

He was exhausted and as much as he wanted to stay awake and help Heero he couldn't fight the lull of sleep. He closed his eyes and let his mind gradually power down.

Part Three

Duo was awakened by a rhythmic clicking sound. He opened his eyes and saw Heero sitting in the dark on the couch typing away at his laptop.

Still working. He must be on to something, Duo thought as he watched Heero's tense features working diligently in the dark. He watched as Heero finished typing, closed the laptop and got up to grab the car keys off of the kitchen counter.

"Hey," Duo heard his own voice cracking with exhaustion. "Where you going?"

"I'm going to serve a warrant." Heero was approaching the bedroom slowly, fully dressed with the keys clutched in his hand. The statement snapped Duo into full consciousness.

"Warrant?"

"For Leonard Cadence, the largest stock investor in the Winner Corporation." Heero explained flatly.

Mission mode, Duo thought with a small smile. "Let me come with you?"

"No."

"It was worth a try."

\\ Author's Note : Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you very much for all of the kind comments and reviews. I'm glad that so many people are enjoying my interpretation of Duo and Heero's relationship. I actually don't read much fan fiction myself, so what you see is purely my own head canon of how these characters would interact. I first saw the show in 2001 when I was in high school and had found my first fan fiction for this series online. It was definitely nothing like the characterizations here. I also read a lot of doujinshi with these characters and found myself really upset with how these characters were portrayed. It just wasn't how I saw them when I enjoyed the series and the official manga. I have always loved the idea of romantic friendships and having the pilots share bonds and trusts with one another that are realistic and believable. I don't believe in omitting female characters from the canon because I feel they are important influences. By writing this fic I am attempting to tell a story about a conspiracy plot, but in the process I wanted people to experience the Duo/Heero relationship how I myself have always interpreted it. The series itself is actually very vague in regards to character relationships, which is what makes it a fun series to write fiction for. Everyone's interpretation is different. I hope mine does the characters as much justice as it can, and I am happy that you have come along for the ride! Thanks again, and enjoy. \\