Okay, this is a little over a week, but I still got it up fairly quickly. Better than my last update interval, anyway. Hope you like it!
Duo quickly spun to face Heero. Hearing that the other pilot was all right was one thing, seeing it for himself was quite another. He didn't even care that the world continued spinning for several seconds after he stopped, because Heero held quite still, and that meant the Duo could prove to himself that his fellow pilot was just fine.
The other pilots in the kitchen did seem to care a great deal about all that spinning, however.
"Duo!" Quatre yelped, springing for his braided friend as the other pilot swayed rather alarmingly. Trowa was just behind him, and added his own hands to aid in keeping their friend upright.
"'M okay, Q, just a little dizzy," Duo mumbled in an effort to reassure his new leaning posts. Nobody fell for it.
"Dammit, Maxwell, you're no better than Yuy!" Wufei fumed, moving quickly around to get a chain behind Duo so he could sit down. "If you pass out, you are going to stay right where you fall. I have had enough of hauling stubborn unconscious idiots back to bed for one day."
Of all the pilots, Heero was the only one not to move as Duo was carefully placed in the chair, hovered over, and generally made much of. The Japanese pilot was too preoccupied with the look that had been in Duo's eyes as he'd spun around at the sound of Heero's voice. It had been desperate, hungry, and almost- pleading. He'd never seen anything like it on the braided pilot's face before. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, he'd rarely seen anything in the other's face but the normal manic cheer that seemed to characterize the American. Something about that seemed wrong, somehow... but between his current inguries and the drugs, he wasn't up to analyzing that thought any further. All he really felt like doing was staring at Duo, so he carried on with that, watching as the other pilot regained composure and got over the lightheadedness that the spinning had caused.
Wufei looked up as Duo recovered, and spotted Heero still standing in the doorway. "Yuy, you should come sit down as well. The need to step over you would very quickly become inconvenient should you collapse where you currently are." Jerking out of his thoughts, Heero moved further into the room, heading towards one of the other open chairs around the table.
Duo, meanwhile, had fully recovered from his dizzy fit, and was desperatly trying to stem the flood of helpfulness that was coming at him from a certain blond pilot. "Enough, Quat!" he finally exclaimed. "I'm just still getting over that last mission, and I guess I moved to quickly, that's all."
"If you're still recovering, Duo, then you shouldn't have gotten out of bed! Here I'll help you back upstairs-"
"Hold it," Duo interrupted firmly, raising a hand to fend of the attempt to help him up. "I have just spent three days out cold. I'm kinda slept out, and I'm starving. I'm gonna eat, and then I'm gonna go check on Deathscythe. As soon as I get a printout of his stats, I promise to go back upstairs and go over them in my room, on my bed, resting quietly, where I can fall asleep should I get the slightest urge. Good enough?"
"Fine," Quatre huffed, knowing that was the best he was going to get. "But if you spend too much time out in the hanger, I swear I'll- I'll use those cargo chains to tie you to the bed!"
"Got it, Q. No all-nighters for me," Duo chuckled. He then set himself to inhaling as much food as humanly (well, part-demon-ly to be entirely accurate) possible. Energy drainage always made him feel like he could eat his own weight twice over.
After he finished, Duo asked for the directions to the hanger, and was absolutely overjoyed to hear that this was one of the few safe houses that actually had the hanger attached directly to the house itself. It might be more accurate to say that the house was attached to the hanger, seeing as storage structure completely dwarfed the living quarters, but that was being picky. Either way, not having to go hiking, swimming, or digging to reach the Gundams (all of which they'd had to do in the past) cheered Duo immensely.
The other pilots remained in the kitchen after Duo left for the Gundams. Given the acoustics of the place, which seemed designed to carry any given noise throughout the rest of the house, they could easily hear him make his way down the hall and into the hanger. They even heard the slight whoosh of the automatic door closing behind him. The silence held for several moments after that sound finished echoing before a voice broke it.
"Who else noticed something odd about this last mission?"
And I'm just gonna leave that little cliffie right there for you to wail at. On the plus side, I hopefully won't leave it there too long. Reviews make me work faster! (no, I'm not above asking for bribes). Kisses to everyone who's put me on their favorites and updates list, and I'll see you all next chapter!