Chapter 20- Two Worlds in One
Heero nearly went cross-eyed staring at the huge pile of papers in front of him—papers that he was expected to read. Every. Single. One. He doubted that anyone actually read them. He probably wouldn't either.
Noin and Milliardo had taken Audrey out of the room to show her around, leaving Heero stuck with Lady Une. It was a rather awkward situation, and it was a little difficult to calmly sit in a room with only her.
Even though they were now allies, they had a rather rough history between them. Not that they ever really encountered each other much during the war. She had still captured him once, and threatened him to the point of self destruction another time.
That was then. He reminded himself. She's a different person now…literally. He had heard a few rumors that Une had multiple personalities, and now he believed it. The calm, controlled woman in front of him now was nothing like the short-fused woman who had sent so many innocent men to their deaths during the war.
She had a sense of power though, and diplomacy. With her history in political and war-related affairs, she was actually a pretty good candidate to head up an organization such as the Preventers.
Heero shot a glance up at the woman, to see that she had grabbed the phone and was dialing a number.
"Hale, can I see you in my office." Une said into the phone. She paused for a second. "Now if you will."
Heero stared at her, wondering when she was going to "show him around." He didn't need a tour. He already knew where everything was. She had insisted that he wait though.
"That was your partner." Une said.
Heero cocked an eyebrow. "Partner? What partner?"
"His name is Marcus Hale. He was a troop instructor in the Alliance Military. He is in charge of the more advanced levels of recruit training. It's really hard to find qualified drill sergeants nowadays. Since the war's end, not many people want jobs that remind them of the war, and most of the soldiers we do get prefer to do fieldwork. Hale's got a wife and daughter, so he likes to stay on earth.
"Before he gets here, I'll tell you a little bit about the recruit training courses here. First off, all recruits who enter the Preventers are sent through basic training. Afterwards, they are sent to their assignments, or if they are going into field work, are sent to specialty training. Basic training is a 15 week course that teaches the basics of armed and unarmed combat, first aid, diplomacy, history, strategy, and how to behave in uniform. Advanced training, or specialty training, is reserved for our field officers—both those that check out hotspots, and those on cleanup. Specialty training is ten weeks long. Usually anywhere between fifteen and twenty five recruits enter. Only five or ten actually graduate. The course teaches more advanced levels of armed and unarmed combat, emergency survival tactics in wilderness and space, piloting space shuttles, planes, and submarines, computer hacking, and the proper way to arrest people."
Heero cocked an eyebrow at the last one.
"You may learn something new yourself." Une smirked. "Hale is in charge of specialty training, but it's really a job for more than one man. You pretty much get free reign as far as how you train the men. As long as they learn everything. Hale is pretty…creative…but you'll see that for yourself."
Two knocks on the door signaled the Hale's arrival. He didn't wait for permission to enter, but instead just walked in.
Une stood to greet the new arrival, and Heero followed the motion. He looked the man up and down. He was definitely a soldier. Heero could tell by the way he stood. Hale was probably about four inches taller than Heero. He was slim, but, appeared well built. His head was clean shaved, and his eyes, almost black, had the calculating look of an experienced soldier. He regarded Heero with the same look Heero gave him.
Une cleared her throat, and, after a few seconds, the two men broke eye contact with each other and looked at her.
"Hale, this is former gundam pilot Heero Yuy. He will be the new advanced troop instructor and…your partner." Heero nodded in greeting, and Hale returned the nod. "Heero, this is Sergeant Major Hale, former troop instructor for the Alliance military special forces." Hale returned the nod.
"Now that the introductions are over, you can take Heero back to show him the ropes. Heero, be sure you get an ID before you leave."
Hale nodded again and without a single word, turned and headed out of the room.
Heero cocked an eyebrow at Une before striding out of the room after him.
Hale was waiting for him outside of the door. "So do I call you Yuy?" It was the first word he had said to him, and Heero was almost surprised at how deep his voice was. Hale looked to be in his late twenties, but his voice betrayed that he was more than a few years older than that.
Heero half shrugged. "If you want."
Hale didn't respond. He started walking down the hall and Heero fell in step beside him. Despite the fact that Hale was taller than him, Heero easily kept up. They both remained silent. Neither really seemed the type for idle chatter. They stepped into the elevator. Heero leaned against the wall, but Hale stood stiff, his hands behind his back.
They exited the elevator without a word, and headed out toward the lobby. After a few minutes of silence, Hale spoke. "You'll have to shave your head."
Heero stopped in his tracks a hand instinctively reaching up to comb through his hair. He looked at the top of Hale's darker head to see that it was shaved so closely that it shined.
"It was a joke, son." Hale's face remained deadly serious, but Heero could see a little mischief in his eyes. "You'll have to have a sense of humor for this job. Picking on the recruits is a good way to entertain yourself. Otherwise, it makes for a hell of a long day."
Heero just stared, and Hale turned to walk out of the building.
"Do you know where everything is?" Hale asked as he got into a Preventer jeep that he had left parked conveniently in front of the Affairs building.
Heero nodded. "I…found the blueprints."
Hale immediately caught on to what he was saying. "You hack computers, then." He stated, seemingly pleased. "Good. I'll let you handle the computer training. I'm more of an explosives man myself. Did Commander Une give you any specific assignments?"
"Hacking, defusing bombs, piloting shuttles, combat, both with and without arms from what I gather."
"You can do all that."
Heero nodded.
Hale seemed impressed, but not surprised. "I would expect nothing less of a former gundam pilot."
"I was waiting for her to tell you to house break me." Audrey grumbled as Noin guided her out of Une's office and down the hall.
Noin chuckled a bit. "She's like that. It's just because you're so young. Not many people your age have the skill or commitment to get good jobs here. In most cases, she would have sent you to basic training. You're quite lucky to have gotten out of that. By all means you should be in recruit training. But we needed a contact so badly, that you get to skip it. We can always show you a few things later, I guess."
Audrey scowled at the idea, and decided to change the subject. Hopefully everyone would forget about her lack of physical and combat related aptitude over time. "So do you work here all the time?" Audrey asked.
"No." Noin said. "Far from it. Zechs and I—"
"Who?"
Noin pointed to the towering blonde behind them. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Audrey Harper, this is Milliardo Peacecraft—codename "Wind" for future reference—"Zechs" to me and a few other people. Zechs, this is Audrey."
Audrey smiled politely—if a bit embarrassedly—at Milliardo and then cocked an eyebrow at Noin as something finally registered. "Code name?"
Noin smiled at her. "We get codenames when you do fieldwork or when you contact a person who is doing field work. It's just a safety precaution, really. In case our lines get tapped, we don't want them to know our names. Mine's "Fire." Une will issue you yours some time later today…or most likely tomorrow. I'll show you how to be sure that the line is safe later. Back to your earlier question, Zechs just started here about a month ago, but our main area of work will be in space. We will contact here each day with a status report when we're gone. That's where you come in. The report will contain anything from the status of relations between certain colonies, to the amount of uranium being shipped into a colony. Each item will be flagged with a different color and so forth, depending on how much of a priority we estimate it to be. Occasionally we will find a scrap of metal or will tap a phone line that looks suspicious. We will immediately send you the call or a picture of whatever we found. You will bring whatever we send you to the appropriate lab, and go over it with them. Whatever the results—even if it turns out to be nothing—you are to send them, flagged, back to us and to Une. Do you follow?"
Audrey nodded.
"Good." Noin smiled at her and then sent a glance to Milliardo. "We also, attend meetings between dignitaries in space. We don't participate much, since we are not actually a political entity, but we do try to give suggestions for peaceful solutions to problems. We will bring a camera to these meetings and film them usually. The camera will be directly linked to your computer so that you can watch and listen to the meeting as it's occurring and record it for further review. We will have a laptop as well. If we have any questions about any past reports, any politicians, the particular status of something on a colony, or anything at all, we will send it to you, and you will find whatever file we need and send it back to us ASAP. Some you will be able to get in less than five minutes. Some may take a day or two. That's okay, because most meetings last for two weeks at least."
Audrey cocked an eyebrow. She remembered her father being away for days at a time to attend meetings, but she never remembered him being gone for more than two weeks.
"Besides that, you will do small things for us…like get hotel reservations. We get discounts for being a government agency. You may have to find the location of nearby fueling stations, or send us a map of a colony. That's about all I can think of for now. There are probably a few other odds and ends, but we won't have to worry about that for now. Unless…" She turned to Milliardo. "Can you think of anything?"
He shook his head nonchalantly.
Noin looked back at Audrey. "Any questions?"
"You still never told me why you are on earth instead of in space."
"Oh." Noin chuckled and looked around the hall before finding an empty office and pulling Audrey in. "Well you followed the news about the Barton faction trying to take over, right?"
Audrey shrugged. "A little."
"The nominal leader of the faction was named Mariemaia Barton, but she claimed to be Treize Kushrenada's daughter. Une used to be Treize's most trusted…" She moved her hands as if trying to pull the right word out of the air and then looked to Milliardo when she couldn't find it.
"They were lovers." Milliardo said.
Audrey's eyes widened, and Noin scowled at his coarse wording. Milliardo gave Noin an innocent shrug, and Noin continued.
"Because Mariemaia is claiming kinship to Treize, and because she had no other relatives that we can find, Une is going to adopt her." Audrey nodded, although she wasn't sure what that had to do with the fact that Noin wasn't in space. "Mariemaia was shot during that incident. It was a near fatal wound, but she survived. She's in the hospital right now, and Une has to direct a lot of attention to taking care of her and adopting her. Therefore, Sally Po and I are splitting shift with her. We'll be on earth for a few more weeks, or at least until Mariemaia is a bit more stable."
Audrey thought about how sad that was, but then another thought crossed her mind. "Isn't the Earth Sphere like…I don't know…in havoc because of the...thing?" She hadn't noticed anything odd, but she hardly ever paid any attention to politics.
"Sort of." Noin said. "Everyone's really uptight and worried, but they all pretty much have the same agenda. They all want peace, but they all have different opinions to just how much power the Earth Sphere should have over the affairs of individual nations. The only problem now is reconciling everyone's ideas and making everyone get along." Noin sighed.
"It's a rather cliché problem, and one that's not likely to be solved any time soon." Milliardo drawled from behind them. "We have to continue working toward a solution though, if only for appearance's sake."
Audrey stared at the tall man for a second before deciding that he probably knew what he was talking about. She just nodded and turned around. She decided to change the subject. "So what about Sally and Wufei? Are they always on earth?"
Noin nodded. "They're not really involved with politics as much as we are. They deal mainly with investigating sites that appear suspicious, and clearing out old military bases. Sally is also in charge of the medical staff, but she won't be around much now to do it anymore. They'll probably leave in a week or so. Mariemaia will be well enough to go home soon.
They reached a set of modern glass double doors and Noin pulled it open. The room they entered was round, but there were two desks set diagonally on either side of the doorway. There were four other doors set at intervals on the rounded back wall.
The two secretaries looked curiously at the newcomers, but upon recognizing Noin and Milliardo, didn't say anything.
Noin turned briefly to the two women. She didn't actually know them well, but she figured that it would be a nice gesture to introduce them to Audrey. "This is Audrey Harper. She will be working here now."
Audrey smiled politely, and the two women returned similar—although slightly confused—smiles.
When Noin was sure that none of them were going to move, she continued with her tour. She headed to the second door to the left. "You may know already, this building is the Affairs Building. The first floor is just the lobby, incoming and outgoing mail, and security offices. The floor above that is this building's techie group. If you ever have a computer malfunction on anything, just go talk to them. The next few floors are mainly cubicles. They handle mainly the paperwork that goes on in the building. Each floor has a different function, but we won't go into that now. The three floors above that are personal offices. The one directly below this one, has different size conference rooms. The top floor, as you know, is Une's office, and a few other personal offices." She opened second door from the right. "This is yours."
Audrey stared. "Seriously?"
"Yep." Noin walked further into the room. It was very nice. The entire back wall was a window. There was a large semicircular desk in the middle. "Because Zechs and I handle some of the most important cases, you need to be close to Une. This is close."
"Very close." Audrey said.
Noin smiled. "Sally and Wufei's contact is right next-door." She turned and headed out of the office. "He used to be mine and Sally's, when we were partners, but now that we've switched we needed another one. That's you." She knocked on the door to the right of Audrey's new office and then pushed the door open. "Mickel!" The man glanced away from his computer upon hearing Noin's voice.
"Noin!" He stood and came around the desk. He was a rather handsome man with light brown hair and dark eyes. He was of average build and only an inch or two shorter than Milliardo. "What are you doing here? I don't work for you anymore." He said in a joking way. He had a sort of accent that Audrey couldn't place, but Audrey guessed he was Russian. He appeared to be in his mid twenties, and probably single from the way he was staring at her.
"Mickel," Noin turned and pointed to Audrey. "This is mine and Zechs' new contact, Audrey Harper. Audrey this is Mickel Rumanov."
Audrey extended her hand, but instead of shaking it, he gently kissed it. Audrey quickly shot a shocked glance to Noin. She only smiled back.
Mickel straightened and flashed Audrey a dazzling smile. "I look forward to working with you." He said.
Audrey, a little unsure of what to do, smiled politely. "Me too."
Milliardo cleared his throat loudly breaking up the rather awkward moment.
Noin looked apologetically at Mickel, and started pulling Audrey toward the door. "We have to finish giving her a tour. We'll see you later."
Hale stared stonily at the few men standing at attention before him.
They had gotten Heero's Preventers badge and then went out to meet the recruits. "This is your new trainer, Sergeant Major Yuy." Heero didn't know how much he liked having a rank. He supposed he would just deal with it. "We're going to go for a jog and warm up a bit." He motioned with his head for Heero to follow him and then took off. Heero jogged alongside him, his leg jolting with pain each time he put pressure on it. He didn't say anything though—didn't even so much as grimace. Hale appeared to be heading the road, but just before he reached it, he detoured and headed straight toward the jeep.
Heero followed wondering what was going on. A glance at the cadets told him that they were not as confused as he was.
Hale slid into the jeep and motioned for Heero to get into the passenger's side. He did and Hale started off down the road.
The men jogged crossly behind them as Hale drove around the compound. He made sure to look as comfortable as possible to the men who were running in the cold weather.
Heero stared at the rearview mirror for a little while. The recruits were keeping up with the jeep, but Hale wasn't driving very fast. Hale seemed to sense Heero's thought, for after a second, he sped up a bit. With a grin, he turned to Heero. "They love this, but sometimes they need a little encouragement."
Heero just blinked at him. The man was obviously being sarcastic, but his face was completely serious. Despite himself, Heero had to work not to laugh.
After a few minutes, the recruits looked to be getting tired. Hale rolled down the window and hollered back to them. "Pick it up cadets. I'm not even sweating!"
Heero smirked a bit. Sure it was a tad cruel, but his training had been much harsher.
They rode around the complex one more time, before they pulled up in front of the gym.
Hale got out of the jeep and headed over to the gym. Heero and the recruits again followed. There was a reception desk right on the entrance and two rather burly men chatting behind it. They turned upon the small troop's arrival and then nodded to Hale. Hale looked like he was about to just walk on by, but as if on second thought, paused and pointed a thumb at Heero. "This is Yuy. My new partner." He continued walking.
Heero quickly nodded in greeting before following Hale.
The room they were in had nothing but weights, of all different shapes and sizes, with different equipment and such. Hale led them around the weights and to a stairwell.
The second floor, Heero saw briefly through the glass door, had treadmills, stairclimbers, and exercise bikes.
They headed up to the third, and highest, floor. A third of the huge room, the part in the middle, was covered in a huge blue mat. It was apparently intended for some sort of wrestling. Another third was wood flooring. On the wall behind the wood floor was a rack of various weapons. There were two rings which appeared to be boxing rings covering part of the last third.
There were two men in one of the rings. The blue mat was clear. A lone figure was in the back of the wood area doing katas. Heero spotted him instantly and had to work to suppress a groan. "Chang."
Hale noticed too and cast a sidelong glance to Heero. "Isn't that the other gundam pilot?"
The recruits looked at each other confusedly at the statement. Others even whispered quietly to one another. Heero gathered that they had caught Hale's use of the word "other."
Wufei had been concentrating on his kata, but caught the group of people staring at him out of the corner of his eye. He straightened and turned to them, getting ready to tell them to buzz off. Then he spotted Heero.
Wufei and Heero locked eyes. Neither moved for a few minutes.
Finally, Hale turned to Heero. "Why don't you show them what two gundam pilots can do? I'm pretty curious myself."
The recruits' suspicions had been confirmed, and they started whispering excitedly to one another. Many stared at Heero in awe.
Heero shifted his weight to his good leg and then flexed the bad one a bit. It was still a bit painful, but he figured that a little spar couldn't hurt it too much.
Wufei, tired of watching people stare at him, yelled across the room. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
Heero looked at Hale. Hale just shrugged. Heero turned back to Wufei. "HOW ABOUT A SPAR?"
Wufei looked Heero up and down before snorting. "I DON'T FIGHT THE WEAK AND HANDICAPPED!"
That was not the response that anyone was expecting, although afterwards, Heero reasoned that he should have expected it. He thought for a second, both deliberating on whether or not he really wanted to spar with Wufei. He had already told Hale he would, and he wasn't going to back down from that. Now he just needed to think of a way to get Wufei over his honor policy. After a few seconds, Heero smirked confidently and crossed his arms. "YOU'RE JUST AFRAID THAT I'LL BEAT YOU!"
He could feel Wufei's eyes narrowing, even though he couldn't see them. He could almost hear him growl. "THAT'S A LIE, AND YOU KNOW IT!" He stormed over and put his face just inches away from Heero's. "You'll not con me into a fight, Yuy. I said I don't fight the weak. That includes you."
Heero frowned. "Thanks for your concern, but you shouldn't worry about me. I want a spar Chang—not a fight to the death."
Wufei took a step back, calming himself. He looked Heero up and down and then looked at the people gathered curiously around him. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you a recruit?"
Heero shifted his weight a bit, apparently deliberating on what to say. "No. I'm a…recruit…trainer."
Wufei snorted. "You?"
Heero shrugged, growing a bit irritated. "Are we going to spar or not?"
Wufei looked from Heero, to Hale, to the recruits behind them, and then back to Heero. He recognized Hale a bit, but he had never seen any of the recruits before. He fixed Heero with an even glare. "You can hardly walk."
Heero scowled. "I walk fine."
Without moving his eyes from Heero's, Wufei took his staff and whacked Heero in the leg.
Heero didn't see it coming until it was too late, but he was quick enough to grab the staff before Wufei could bring it back to his side. He tried to snatch it away, but Wufei grabbed the other end and pulled back. The two continued to struggle to get the staff, but neither gave way.
"Did that hurt?" Wufei teased.
Heero scowled. "It would have hurt anyone."
They both continued their tug-of-war.
After a few seconds, Hale cleared his throat.
The two boys stopped fighting, and appeared to suddenly remember where they were. Heero let go of the staff and they both turned to Hale.
"Is there something I should know?"
Heero just stared.
Wufei smirked. "His girlfriend shot him in the leg two weeks ago."
All stares focused on Heero. "I hope you dumped her." Hale said.
Heero didn't respond.
"You…didn't dump her…"
"It was an accident."
"Never believe that." Hale said, giving Heero a stern look.
Heero rolled his eyes. "It was." He repeated.
"But you still stayed with her?" Hale couldn't seem to comprehend the idea.
"I'm a forgiving guy." Heero grumbled while glaring at Wufei.
No one noticed the momentary look that the two shared.
Wufei felt suddenly a little pathetic—both at the memory of what he had done to Heero—and the Earth Sphere—a month before, and at the knowledge that he had taken advantage of Heero's forgiveness. "Fine." Wufei grumbled. Everyone turned to look at Wufei. "I'll spar with you. If only to shut you up."
He walked off to hang the staff back on the wall. Heero started to head over to the blue mat, but Hale spoke up.
"Are you really going to do that with a broken leg?"
"It's not broken." Heero said offhandedly. "But yeah." He slipped his shoes and jacket off and stepped onto the blue mat.
Wufei came back into the middle of the mat and stood in front of Heero. They both bowed to each other and the fight began.
Audrey and Noin were sitting in the cafeteria. Milliardo had finally gotten bored of tailing around behind the two women and had disappeared somewhere.
Both girls were happy for that. They were both ready to gossip.
Audrey took a sip of coffee and fixed Noin with a mischievous look. "So…what's going on with tall, blonde, and handsome?"
Noin returned the look. "I could ask the same of you, except Heero's not blonde."
Audrey blushed a bit. "I asked you first."
Noin just shrugged and looked around the cafeteria. There were only a few people there, and none of them were nearby. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I see the way you two look at each other. You can't tell me that there isn't more to it than that." Audrey leaned closer. "Come on. Spill."
"We went through military academy together. He's Relena's brother you know."
"Really." Audrey was visibly surprised.
Noin nodded. "He visits her every now and then. They really hardly know each other though. They were separated after their parents died and only recently met up again."
Audrey seemed intrigued, but decided to get back on topic. "So…how do you fit into all of this? Is that why you came to Relena's school? Because of him?"
Noin narrowed her eyes. "Somewhat. I did always feel a need to protect and guide her. Part of it was because she was the only family Zechs has and another part was because she was an important figure in the struggle for peace."
Audrey just nodded. She had never known why everyone thought Relena was so important to everything, but she figured that now was not the time to ask. That would just distract her from her real goal. "So Milliardo Peacecraft. You two have dated long?"
"I don't know if you could call it dating."
"But there is a relationship." She raised her eyebrows.
"Perhaps."
"When's the wedding."
"Audrey!"
"I'm kidding…maybe." A sly smile formed on her face. The little she saw of the two together, she realized that they really did make a good pair. She may have to play a little matchmaking.
Noin cleared her throat, trying to work the blush from her face. "Enough about me." She put her elbows on the table and placed her chin on her laced fingers. "What on earth are you doing with Heero Yuy? And don't try to get out of it because I've seen how you two look at each other, too."
Audrey looked at her oddly for a second. She wasn't aware that she looked at him in any special way, although now that she thought about it, he tended to be a bit more open and gentle with her than with other people. She just shrugged. "Um I guess…we've lived together for about a year."
Noin looked floored.
Audrey supposed the news would be a little surprising to anyone who had known either of them during the war…especially to someone who knew both of them. After a few minutes, when Noin hadn't moved, Audrey cleared her throat.
Noin jumped a little and blinked at Audrey. "You're not kidding? A year? Wha…?" She waved her hands about, a million questions waiting on the tip of her tongue but not able to come out.
Audrey just looked at her, feigning ignorance. "Hm? What?"
Heero hadn't had that good of a work out in…since he had fought Wufei the last time. Heero knew that he was at a disadvantage. Wufei specialized in hand to hand combat and sword fighting. Plus, Heero couldn't do much in the way of kicking.
He was holding his own, though.
Wufei wasn't going to go easy on him because of his leg. That was fine with Heero. He had asked for a fight, and Wufei was going to give him one. He was probably trying to think of a way to show Heero how stupid he was for trying to fight with a handicap.
Heero leaned heavily on his good leg while trying to block Wufei's punches. He knew that he wouldn't be quick enough to dodge, and would probably only hurt himself, so he decided that he would have to hold his ground.
Wufei suddenly jumped and sent a kick right towards Heero's face. Heero didn't have enough time to try to get out the way, and the kick had too much momentum for him to block it. With a split second decision, Heero grabbed Wufei's foot and rolled backwards onto the floor. Wufei was sent flying over his head. Heero reversed the direction of his roll and sprang off the ground. With no visible display of how much the last move had hurt his leg, he turned toward Wufei, ready for his next attack.
Wufei quickly did a hand spring and landed gracefully on his feet. He stared at Heero. "That was a nice move. It's too bad you're stuck on the defensive, or else this fight might have been interesting."
Heero smirked at him. "Who says I'm stuck on the defensive?" Quite senselessly, he reflected on later, he charged at Wufei.
Wufei crouched down, ready to meet him.
Heero led with a right hook, but then feinted left. He tried a left uppercut, but Wufei spun out of the way. He smoothly added a kick to the spin, aiming right for Heero's right ear. Heero ducked down and, bracing his hands on the mat, swiped Wufei's leg out from under him. Wufei fell backwards, and continued to roll until his feet met the floor. The instant that happened, he flew at Heero.
Heero blocked his first few punches, but was unable to block Wufei's knee from driving into his stomach. Wufei took advantage of Heero's momentary distraction to send an elbow into his back…or at least to try to. Heero had collapsed to one knee, but he anticipated Wufei's next attack. He spun on the knee and grabbed Wufei's arm. He hoisted him off the ground and, again, flipped him over his head.
Wufei landed on his feet. He stumbled a bit, but didn't fall.
He and Heero locked eyes. Both were breathing heavily, and standing in anticipation of another attack. Neither was willing to surrender.
Suddenly they heard clapping. They snuck glances out of the corner of their eyes to see who was clapping, but neither wanted to remove their eyes from their opponent for too long. Finally Wufei straightened. Heero did as well.
Neither were going to call the fight a draw, but both silently agreed that it was over.
They looked around the room to see that a large crowd had gathered to watch their little spar. Everyone in the entire gym, and some from outside, had come to watch the fight. Apparently, someone had run downstairs to announce the event. They were all standing on the edges of the mat, staring at the two combatants in awe.
Heero and Wufei just blinked at them, and then looked at each other. They shrugged and headed back to what they were doing before, like nothing had happened.
After the troops went back to their barracks for the day, Heero went to find Audrey and Noin. A quick phone call directed him to the Preventers cafeteria. There he found Audrey and Noin leaning across a table whispering to each other. When he approached, they both went quiet and stared at him.
Heero looked between the two, wondering what was going on.
Neither said anything as an explanation. His only response was Noin suddenly exclaiming something about the time and running away. "I hope you both like it here!" She hollered as she left the cafeteria.
Heero looked curiously back to Audrey, only to find her staring curiously back at him.
"What?"
She looked him up and down and then glanced out the window. Then, she turned back to him with a puzzled look on her face. "Is it raining?"
Heero looked out of the window as well. He had just come from outside, and it hadn't even been cloudy. "No…?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Then why are you wet?" She stood, and, grabbing her empty coffee cup, went to bring it to the dish room.
Heero followed her and then they both headed outside. He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. It was soaked with sweat, as was a good portion of his shirt. He had had to teach the recruits some of the moves he'd used on Wufei, and that required tossing a few recruits around the room. He was ready for a shower. "It's sweat."
Audrey flinched away. "Eww."
Heero frowned at her and then smirked as he suddenly got an idea. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and held her tightly so she couldn't get away. She seemed to have guessed what he was doing because she started trying to free herself. If anything, Heero just held her tighter. His smirk growing to a devilish grin, he shook his head. As anticipated, sweat sprayed all over Audrey.
She gagged in disgust, and started beating on his chest. "That's so gross!"
Heero looked down at her, suddenly remembering something that he had been wondering about since that morning. "How do you know Noin?"
Audrey seemed a little surprised at the question. "Umm…she took me away from the Peacecraft Academy and brought me to space."
Heero was visibly surprised. He had lived with this girl for over a year, and he'd never known something so important? "So Lucrezia Noin just…took you to space, while there was a war going on in space? It doesn't seem like something she'd do."
Heero had loosened his grip on Audrey's shoulders although he didn't remove his arm. Audrey was so surprised that he was asking all those questions, that she didn't even think to push it off. He had never really been interested in knowing about her past. It just wasn't something they ever talked about. "You know her well?" She felt stupid for asking.
"I'd met her a few times during the war."
Audrey frowned a bit. "I feel bad now." She mumbled. "I never really bothered to check up on her after the war. And she was so nice today." Although Audrey was a naturally friendly person, she had never been in one place long enough to make many real friends. Noin had been the best friend she had ever had—besides Jeanne—during the last few months of the war.
Heero nodded. "Too nice to be a soldier really. She hated war, and she hated fighting as far as I could gather." He said more to himself than to her. "Which brings me back to my question: why did she bring you into a battle?"
Audrey smiled a bit. "Because I'd asked her to." Heero still looked doubtful, so she elaborated. "And because she knew that I would never be fighting. She hadn't trained me for that, just for—"
Heero interrupted her. "She trained you? Noin trained you? To do what? You were a nurse."
"Well I'll just start at the beginning and do a really summarized version. If you want to know why Noin agreed to let me do anything though, you'll have to ask her." Audrey took a deep breath and thought for a second. "Well one way or another, I found out that Noin was smuggling mobile suits into the Sanc Kingdom, and I blackmailed her. You know that the Sanc Kingdom was a pacifist nation and that Relena would have been mad to find mobile suits there. I snuck into the hangar one night, and Noin couldn't do anything to me without Relena finding out about everything. I probably did a little begging—which I am not above doing from time to time—and she promised to show me how to repair mobile suits."
Heero just blinked at her, wide eyed.
"But then the battle moved into space." Audrey continued. "Noin was going too, so I begged her to let me go along. She gave in, and you know the rest."
Heero blinked at her. It surprised him that they had such a huge connection before they had actually met each other, and he didn't even know about it. He looked around at the Preventers base before resting his eyes back on Audrey. "So you did all of that, but you were scared to sneak into the Preventers today."
Audrey sighed as if she were an old woman. "I've just become so much more mature I guess."
Heero snorted a laugh.
"I was kinda serious." She pouted. "I don't know what I was thinking then."
He laughed again. He let his arm finally drop from his shoulders as they made it to the jeep. They both climbed in and, casting one glance at the entirety of the Preventers headquarters, sped away.
As always and with just as much enthusiasm as always, I want to say a big "thank you" to all of my reviewers.
Reviews are always appreciated.