Chapter 25- When in Rome

Heero awoke to a light knocking on his door. He groaned slightly and looked over at the clock. It was hardly 9 o'clock.

Neither of them had slept well, both visited frequently by dreams that detailed the events earlier that night.

Heero couldn't vouch for Audrey's dreams although several times he'd awoken to find her shivering with silent tears. His own dreams had been horrifying. Each time, something different happened, something worse than reality. In many, the gunman had aimed higher, giving her a gruesome, if instant, death. He didn't know if he would ever get that image out of his head. In another dream, he had been too late to save her from drowning. By the time he had pulled her out of the pool, she was already dead.

Several times he had jolted awake in a cold sweat by such nightmares.

It had taken him a while each time to assure himself that Audrey was in fact alive, and that she wasn't just another dream. He was afraid to wake up and find that his dream had in fact been reality, and that Audrey would suddenly disappear.

Forgetting why he had woken up in the first place, he stretched out a bit, noticing that Audrey was still cuddled close into his chest. He rolled onto his side and buried his face into her hair intending to go back to sleep.

The knock sounded again, louder this time.

Heero's eye twitched, and he looked curiously toward the door. With a low groan, he disentangled himself from Audrey and his bed and trudged toward the door. He swung it open grumpily to be assaulted by the bright light of the hallway. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, and caught a glimpse of an embarrassed looking Trowa.

"I'm sorry." He said obviously noting that Heero had been sleeping. Heero had no idea what he'd expected, but didn't have time to contemplate it as Trowa started explaining his presence. "Everyone's downstairs for breakfast. We were wondering if you two would join us.

Heero's only answer was a pained blink.

"It's free." Trowa said hoping that it would sway Heero some. "But they stop serving in less than an hour."

Heero shook his head and rubbed a hand across his face. "We'll see you all later." He said stepping back into his room. "I'm going back to sleep."

Trowa looked a little disappointed, but just gave him a sympathetic smile.

Heero shut the door quietly and slid back into bed. Audrey moaned a bit in complaint as she was bounced around. She blinked her eyes open and looked at him groggily.

"Go back to sleep." Heero said wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close.

She obeyed instantly.

Heero smiled a bit and placed a light kiss on the top of her head. He buried his face in her hair, and tightened his hold on her as if to ensure that she wouldn't go anywhere. Then, fell back asleep himself.

Seemingly only a second later, he was jolted awake again by a loud banging on the door. Growling, this time, he disentangled himself from Audrey and the covers and stormed to the door.

He was greeted with the sight of Duo shoving a donut into his mouth.

"Heero, you weren't sleeping were you?" Duo asked around the donut, although his sly look told that he obviously knew the answer.

Heero glared tiredly.

"You look rough. What time did you get back last night?"

Heero blinked and shrugged. "What do you want?"

Duo seemed to suddenly remember his purpose for being there. "Dude! The free breakfast ends in a half an hour! You have to come down and get some."

Heero squinted at him and then turned back to his room. "'m not hu'gry." He yawned. He pushed the door closed and started heading back to his bed.

At the last second Duo's hand appeared in the doorway. The door opened again slowly, making a creepy creaky noise.

Audrey squirmed, rousing a bit at the noise, and Heero simply turned irately back to the pest.

Duo was standing, silhouetted in the doorway, legs spread, and shoulders hunched a bit. His head was bowed, and he stared at Heero through his bangs.

Heero was a little creeped out.

"Heero." Duo whispered. "I'm not going to let you do this."

"Duo get out."

"No man." His voice got a little louder.

Heero saw Audrey squirm again out of the corner of his eye. He shushed Duo.

Duo didn't take the hint. "He-man, you do not stay at a hotel with free breakfast and not eat the free breakfast. You just don't. Think about it. All you can eat at absolutely no cost. And it all ends in…" He looked at his watch. "twenty-eight minutes. Are you willing to miss out on a chance like this?"

Heero stared at him. "Duo." He said softly, as if touched. Then his voice turned harsh. "Get out!"

"No." Duo crossed his arms and took a step into Heero's room. Until then, he hadn't been able to see Audrey. Now he could. He looked stunned for a second, and then he slowly turned his eyes to Heero. He grinned widely. "Ohhhhh. Now I see."

Heero scowled and advanced on Duo. "Go away." He grabbed Duo's arm and started pushing him out the door.

Duo latched on to both sides of the doorway. He decided to switch tactics. "C'mon Heero! Everybody's downstairs. You have to come down. Think of how much it would mean to…to…Quatre. You know he gets sentimental about things like this."

Heero stared for a second, before he heard a small noise behind him. Both he and Duo looked back into the room to see Audrey half sitting up, staring at them tiredly. "What's going on?" She asked hoarsely.

"Mornin' babe!" Duo said happily. "I was just trying to convince Heero here to go get some breakfast."

Heero glared at him.

"It's the free breakfast right?" Audrey asked rubbing her eyes.

Duo nodded.

"I'll go with you." She scooted to the edge of the bed.

Duo grinned devilishly at Heero. Heero responded with one final shove, and slammed the door in his face. He turned to Audrey. "You're really going?"

She nodded and stood tiredly. "Free food." She said, as if that explained everything. She brought her hands above her head and stretched, and then winced at the reminder of her dance with death the day before. "Are you coming?"

Heero stared at her for a second before nodding with a sigh.

Audrey slipped on her shoes and pulled a sweatshirt over her tank top before heading toward the bathroom. She quickly brushed her teeth and pulled her hair up before heading back out.

"You're going dressed like that?" Heero asked, after getting himself a little more presentable.

Audrey nodded to him before pulling the door open. "It's in the hotel. I'm just eating and going back to bed. It's way too early."

Heero just slipped on his shoes and followed her. He was met with the sight of a proudly smirking Duo when he stepped into the hall. He just ignored him and followed Audrey toward the elevator.

When they got downstairs, they found that everyone actually was there. They had pushed a few tables together and were pretty much hogging all the food.

Duo nearly skipped back to his seat, and immediately started inhaling whatever food was in reach.

Heero and Audrey trudged to the only two empty chairs at the table. They were making no effort to hide the fact that they had just woken up.

"Good morning." Quatre greeted them as they both plopped into the chairs across from him and Dorothy. "We were wondering if you two would show." He turned to Audrey. "It's good to see you're okay. We were worried."

She looked a little surprised by the idea, but then smiled at him.

Dorothy leaned a little over the table. "I remember you." She announced. "From the Peacecraft Academy."

Audrey nodded. "Yeah I went there for a while." She grabbed a pancake and pulled it into her plate. "I remember you too." She smirked a bit. "Everyone was in a fuss because of your connections with Romefeller." She looked over at Quatre. "And I also distinctly remember everyone being amazed by some boy students."

Quatre blushed at being caught and chuckled a bit.

Hilde leaned across Duo to talk to the four at the end of the table. "There's a strip mall a little ways down the road. We were thinking of going check it out."

"Sounds fun." Dorothy said. "When are we going?"

"Right after breakfast."

"Isn't it…early?" Heero complained.

"Nonsense." Sally said leaning over as well. "It's vacation. It's never too early."

Heero looked over at Audrey. She gave him a sheepish smile to tell him wordlessly that they'd just as well go. He slumped a bit and picked at his food with a pout. So much for going back to sleep.

An hour later, ten teenagers were walking boisterously down the sidewalk at the strip mall.

Duo and Sally were jokingly trying to convince Wufei to get a tattoo. Trowa and Quatre were quietly sipping on lemonades and occasionally chatting to catch up with each other. Heero was trudging tiredly along beside them, not really adding to anything they said. Dorothy, Hilde, Audrey, and Catherine were chattering loudly and pointing to all the different shops.

"We should really find some rafts or something." Hilde said looking around to try to find some sort of pool shop.

"Yeah." Dorothy added, joining the search. "And a beach ball."

"We're going to the pool?" Audrey asked, stopping for a second.

The other three girls stopped and stared at her for a second before seemingly comprehending her hesitation. The rest of group had stopped a few yards away from them.

"We'll catch up with you all later." Dorothy said, grabbing Audrey's arm and steering her toward a nearby café. The other two girls followed them.

They all slid into a booth near the window.

"Would you rather if we found something else to do?" Catherine asked, sensitive as usual. "Instead of going to the pool, I mean."
"No. It's okay…" Audrey said.

"We can, you know." Hilde said.

"The guys can't stand up to our feminine wiles long." Dorothy added.

"Because we know that it's really soon after…well you know…" Catherine waved her hands around a bit. "And I'm sure that it was scary."

"Oh." Audrey said, realizing their concern. "Well yeah. I was worried about that too I guess. Well I wasn't actually going to get in the pool." Her stomach churned nervously at the very idea. "But I was mainly worried about my bathing suit." Audrey said shyly. "You see I brought a bikini, but I…uhhh…I have this really ugly bruise…and…"

"Oh." The other three giggled.

"We can fix that." Dorothy said standing up and waving the waiter away. "I'm sure there's a shop with bathing suits around here somewhere. We'll just get you a new one."

It was another one of those times that Heero was hard-put to remember how he had gotten himself in the situation he was in.

And what an odd situation it was. He had bought some kind of sugary ice something—a snow cone perhaps?—on their trip to the strip mall, and that had given him a little more energy.

At the moment, he was sitting on Duo's shoulders, beating Wufei, who was on Trowa's shoulders, with a pool noodle.

It had taken a while for the rest of the group to find the girls again, after they had gotten separated at the strip mall. When they did, though, they had found them in a pool shop.

It had been Duo's idea—of course—to buy the noodles. Heero hadn't seen much use for them at the time, but now that he did, he had to admit that Duo was quite creative…and maybe a little odd, but he wasn't one to judge.

Heero was sure that he was quite the sight, but the big gang of teenagers had already run off all the other guests, so it didn't really matter.

Suddenly Wufei's noodle whacked him hard in the face, and he fell backwards. Duo fell with him since he had tried to keep Heero on his shoulders by keeping a firm grip on his legs. The two tangled boys writhed a bit before surfacing, both coughing and sputtering.

Heero flopped his hair out of his face before glaring up at Wufei. Wufei just smirked at him and held his noodle up victoriously so that Quatre could snap a picture. Trowa chuckled in a mix of amusement and apology.

Heero and Duo looked at each other, and in unspoken agreement, both lunged for the other two boys. Suddenly the pool was full of splashes, and shouts, as the four boys wrestled good naturedly. Dorothy and Catherine gave up on tanning on a raft and joined Hilde, Sally, and Audrey in the beach chairs. Quatre sat on the edge of the pool snapping pictures every time someone surfaced in a headlock or got thrown bodily across the pool.

He laughed at the other boys' antics before all four of the other gundam pilots stopped and stared at him.

Suddenly feeling quite vulnerable, Quatre sat his camera down and tried beat a hasty retreat. It was no good, however, because before he could even pull his feet out of the water, the four boys were standing behind him. Duo and Wufei grabbed each an arm and tugged him up.

Quatre started trying to protest, but they all ignored him.

Trowa and Heero grabbed his legs hoisted them up as Dorothy idled over to grab the camera. The four boys swung and wiggling Quatre back and forth a few times before letting go and allowing him to fly in to the pool.

Quatre tumbled about a bit in the water before finding which way was up. He pulled his head out of the water just in time to be splashed by four others who had jumped back into the pool.

While the boys splashed around, the five girls lazed about on beach chairs, talking and reading.

Although Audrey had done her best to keep as much distance from the actual water as possible, Heero was relieved that she had at least come out. He was glad that she wasn't suddenly scared of pools.

It was getting close to lunch, so the girls were trying to decide if they would go to a restaurant to eat, or just bring some pizza by the pool.

"The sign says that no food is allowed." Catherine reminded them all.

"It also says that no drinks are allowed, and there's a tiki bar right there." Dorothy pointed.

Audrey looked over at the tiki bar. The man behind the counter was sitting there boredly. He had no customers because none of the people at the pool were old enough to buy alcohol. Sally came close, but she wouldn't turn 21 for a few months. Audrey and Dorothy had walked over earlier to see if the tiki man would make an exception. Neither had really drunk much before, but they figured that it was vacation and they deserved it. Audrey especially wanted something to calm her nerves. She knew that she was in no danger near the pool, but she was still a little nervous.

The tiki man had denied them, of course, when they hadn't been able to prove that they were of age.

Audrey looked back down at her book, which she had only halfway been reading. She always liked to sit in the sun and read, but it was difficult to do it with so many people around. Finally giving up, she dropped the book back into her bag.

It was at that moment that her phone rang. She grabbed it and, noticing that it was Noin, started nervously wondering if there was news on the assassin. "Hello? Noin?"

The other girls went quiet, knowing that if Noin was calling it might be something serious. Audrey didn't really notice. The boys did however, and slowly waded over to the side of the pool to listen in.

"Audrey." Noin said cheerfully from the other end of the line. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm alright."

"That's good." She said and then hesitated. "I can't discuss anything over the phone, but we need to see you and the rest of the Preventers as soon as possible."

"Oh okay." Audrey said, looking over at Sally and suddenly noticing that everyone was staring at her. "Like, you mean, now?"

"Yes we're at the hotel."

"Our hotel?"

"Of course. We're outside your room in fact. I guess it's safe to assume that no one is there. Are you all together?"

"Yeah, but—"

Noin interrupted her. "How soon can you be back here?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you. We're at the pool."

There was silence for a moment. "Oh." Noin said sounding surprised. She refrained from asking any questions however. "Well, we'll come and meet you then."

"Uh. Okay." Audrey said, and then they both hung up.

"What's going on?" Dorothy asked, voicing everyone's question.

Audrey stared at them all wondering if she should actually say anything since there were a few who were not actually Preventers. Finally, she decided to keep it short. "Noin is coming. They've got some information apparently, but she wouldn't tell me over the phone."

There were multiple splashes as the boys all pulled themselves out of the pool and started searching for towels. The girls all started packing their things as well.

"How long until they get here?" Sally asked.

Audrey glanced toward the hotel doors just as Noin, Milliardo, and Relena stepped out. "Well uhh…they are here." She pointed to them.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the three people approaching them. Rather they stared at one in particular. Although it was somewhat surprising that Noin and Milliardo had arrived so soon, it was even more surprising that they had brought Relena with them.

Noin waved cheerfully and immediately headed over. The other two followed. Relena looked about as anxious around the pool as Audrey had been, so she made sure to keep Milliardo between the pool and herself.

"Sorry to spoil your fun," Noin said, sounding genuinely sorry. "but there have been some developments that couldn't really wait. This is a business trip after all."

Everyone nodded and mumbled to each other.

"As soon as you're all decent," Milliardo said scanning the five gundam pilots with mocking disapproval. "we can get down to business."

"Are we going to be allowed into the meeting?" Dorothy asked.

Noin and Milliardo frowned to each other. "All the information is confidential." Noin finally said. "But since you'll probably find out anyway," She eyed Duo for his talkativeness and inability to lie, and Quatre for his inability to anger Dorothy. "I suppose you can come."

The three non-Preventers smiled, even though Milliardo looked like he might argue.

"Come along then." Noin said before he could say anything. She turned and started leading everyone back into the hotel.

As everyone morosely headed back inside, Relena asked Audrey to stay back with her.

Heero was almost to the door when he noticed that the two weren't following them inside. He stopped and looked a little nervously back at them. Audrey motioned for him to go ahead inside. He cast them one more suspicious glance before going in.

When Relena was sure that they were alone, she turned to Audrey. "I…" She paused, seemingly trying to think of what to say. After a second, she started again. "I just wanted to thank you…for last night. And…and to apologize…"

Audrey smiled at her. She had never really been all that fond of Relena, but she couldn't think of too many reasons to dislike her—besides the fact that her naiveté often got others into trouble, and she could be a little spoiled. "Don't worry about it." She said.

"No." Relena said fiercely. "It was my fault that you were hurt."

"We all make mistakes." Audrey said. "Apologies really only work as long as you try not to repeat the mistakes."

Relena stared for a second, not really sure what to make of the statement. Finally she smiled a bit. "We'll I suppose it's the least I can do."

Audrey chuckled a bit, but was cut short by Milliardo storming out of the hotel. "What are you doing out here alone?" He asked Relena, completely ignoring Audrey. "I could kill Yuy. Haven't you learned anything? After last night? Do you want a repeat? Don't go anywhere without myself or another Preventer with you."

Audrey wondered for a second if she had suddenly turned invisible, but she decided not to comment on Milliardo's rudeness.

Relena looked extremely put off by Milliardo's comments, however, and jumped to defend herself. "She was with me." She said pointing at Audrey. "She's a Preventer."

Milliardo looked at Audrey as if he had indeed just noticed her. He glanced disbelievingly at Relena before regarding Audrey with a wry look. "Her? I meant a capable Prevneter."

Audrey had the dignity to look offended, but didn't contradict him. She knew what he meant.

Milliardo wouldn't leave well enough alone, however. "She can't even shoot a gun. Word has it," He smirked in Audrey's direction. "she shot Yuy a few months ago."

Relena gasped and looked shocked at Audrey as if seeing her in a new light.

Audrey tried to look innocent, but she couldn't wipe the betrayed look from her face. Before she could clarify anything, Relena had turned and ran back toward the hotel.

Audrey she stared in shock at the hotel door for a moment before turning to Milliardo and slapping his arm. Although it hurt her hand more than his arm, she had at least gotten his attention. "I can't believe you!" She fumed. "I'll never live that down if you keep bringing it up. And! And! You don't have room to be so mean to me, when all I've ever done is be nice to you."

Milliardo looked a little guilty. He glanced back at the hotel and, assuming that Relena would go straight to Heero, allowed himself to turn calmly back to Audrey.

She looked more angry than he had ever seen her, although it was still more pouting than anger. "And maybe I can't shoot a gun or do all that other…punching and stuff, but…But!..." She trailed off, apparently unsure of any personal redeeming qualities. "See if I ever do anything nice for you again." She turned and started stomping off

Milliardo stared for a second before running after her and pulling her to a stop. "I…I didn't mean it like that." He said. "Of course I appreciate you saving Relena last night. I still meant what I said, though, about her not being alone without someone to protect her."

"I did an okay job." Audrey mumbled.

"Without injuring themselves." He clarified.

She scowled, knowing that he had a point.

"I really am grateful by the way. Of all the people there last night, you were the last person I expected to keep my sister safe. But you did, and for that I thank you." He stared down at her. "I have a feeling though, that right now my gratitude may not be appreciated. So…" He looked around, and his eyes landed on the tiki bar. "I could…buy you a drink…?" And perhaps get one for himself as well.

She looked up at him, shocked.

"You did buy me one a while back." He said, trying to make up for his kindness. "And even though I have yet to forgive you for that horrible pink room and probably never will," She reluctantly laughed. "I did enjoy the champagne." He looked decidedly uncomfortable, but whether it was his brush with sentimentality or with the prospect buying alcohol for a minor, she couldn't tell.

"Something light and summery." She said after a few seconds, showing that she accepted his kind-of-apology. "There was some kind of tequila or something…that sounds nice."

They arrived at upstairs a few minutes later, Audrey with a pink fruity drink in hand, and Milliardo a bottle of something stronger. Milliardo apparently knew that they were to be meeting in Sally and Wufei's room and so he headed there while Audrey went to change.

A few minutes later, she quickly scurried into the meeting room. She stopped short, however, by the amount of awkward stares she received.

"Wha…?" She looked around. Milliardo, Wufei, and Sally looked amused. Heero looked frustrated. Noin looked nervous. Everyone else was staring at her with either accusation or curiosity.

Heero rolled his eyes and motioned her to come sit by him. "Ignore them." He said to her. "Can we get to the reason that you all came?"

"Yes!" Noin said quickly, seemingly relieved that he had suggested it.

Audrey walked over to sit beside Heero on the bed. She was nervously aware that everyone in the room was staring at her. "What's going on?" She whispered.

He sighed and shook his head lightly. "Apparently someone told Relena that you shot me." He whispered.

Apparently, he wasn't quiet enough, because a second later, Relena spoke. "Did you?"

Audrey blanched. She looked to Heero for help, but he was busy glaring at Relena. She looked around the room to see that everyone was still staring at her as they had been when she'd come in.

"Did you do it?" Relena demanded again. "Why would you shoot him?"

Audrey sunk a little bit as if to shield herself from the accusing glares and clutched her drink tightly. "It was an accident."

"How can you accidentally shoot someone?" Duo asked from across the room. His voice didn't sound accusing, but one couldn't be sure.

"Quite easily if you're me." Her stomach was churning. She still felt guilty about the whole ordeal.

"Well if you didn't know what you were doing—" Relena started, but Heero cut her off.

"What does any of that have to do with you?" He demanded. "And you?" He turned to Duo. "I can distinctly remember you putting a few bullets in me too. And why are any of you mad about it anyway?" He said. "It was an accident. I can certainly vouch for that. It's not funny." He glared at the three who were chuckling. Only Sally sobered herself. "But it happened months ago, and everybody's over it!" He glared at Noin. "Noin! Get on with this meeting!"

She jumped to it before anyone could say anything else. "Yes. Well, we sent DNA samples to our lab last night immediately after the attack. Our labs only found anything on the guy about an hour ago. I have everything right here." She pointed to her laptop before she continued. "The gun he carried was Alliance military issue, although the same type was often used by OZ and White Fang soldiers as well. However, there is no record of him as ever being a soldier for any of these organizations. His face—what we could still see of it—did not register at all in any of our systems. The only information we could get was that he was placed into a hospital on the J4 colony very early into the war, by an anonymous person. The man had no connections. No one ever came to see him or to claim him. No one ever found any form of identification. He was in a coma, apparently for his entire stay at the hospital. Here's where it gets interesting. There was an explosion one day in the wing the man was kept. No one ever could ever figure out how. There were 24 casualties. The man was counted among them, although no one could ever find his remains. After that, there is no mention of him. He is about as close to a ghost as you can get."

The room was silent after she finished. She looked around, to see if anyone would comment or question anything. When no one did, she opened the computer and pulled up a digitally reconstructed picture of the man's face.

"Although there is no evidence that the assassin was working for someone, it is pretty difficult to imagine him sneaking into a heavily secured party on his own. It's possible of course, but there are very few people who can do such a thing, and I would even go so far as to say that they are all in this room."

She sighed. "Because there is no evidence that the man was working for someone, the Preventers cannot declare a state of alarm. In case anyone was wondering, by the way, the Preventers are facing numerous charges from certain politicians about our disregard of the "no weapons" rule last night. They're saying that we are no better than the assassin. Some are even suggesting that we had something to do with the attack."

Everyone looked at each other nervously.

"But those are only a few people." Milliardo assured them. "It will be easily cleared up. It was my house after all. All I have to do is say that I secretly authorized it—which I did—and that Relena and her security did as well—which they didn't, but it doesn't matter."

He waved the issue away.

"Don't worry. This will all be cleared up soon." She sounded like a camp councilor. "The full time Preventers will be leaving to return to headquarters tomorrow at noon so that we can discuss how to proceed with Une. The rest of you are welcome to join." Noin looked reassuringly from one person to another. Finally, her eyes rested on Audrey. Her brows furrowed. "What's that?" She pointed to the pink cup with the umbrella in Audrey's hands.

"What?" Audrey pulled it closer to her as if to hide it. She really didn't want to become the center of everyone's attention again.

Regardless of what she wanted, all heads simultaneously turned in her direction.

"It's nothing." Audrey said. "Just a drink."

Noin looked at her suspiciously.

Heero looked at Audrey, and then down at the drink. He looked back up at her again before pulling the straw over and taking a quick sip. "Where'd you get this?" He asked with a light chuckle.

"Uhhh…" She glanced over at Milliardo who was somehow managing to look suave and innocent at the same time. She just shrugged at Heero and Noin.

Noin had seen the glance and turned to Milliardo. She noticed the bottle in his own hand. "Zechs, you didn't buy that for her did you?"

"Me?" His face hardly changed, except for a small glint of mischief in his eyes.

She gave him a withering glare.

"I owed her." He stuck up his nose and leaned against the wall.

Her glare darkened.

"It's not strong." He crossed his arms.

"Buying drinks for minors is illegal." Noin chided. "You are in a tight spot as it is. You don't need something like this to tip the scale."

"You're a minor?" Milliardo put on his best shocked face and stared at Audrey as if seeing her for the first time. "If I had known…" He looked back at Noin innocently. "What's done is done, I suppose."

Noin's glare vanished and she sighed.

Heero discreetly tried to have another sip, but Audrey swatted him away. "It's mine."

"Why didn't you get me one?" Dorothy asked from across the room. She pouted at Milliardo.

"Me too." Duo added.

"I would have liked to try it." Relena said, finally recovering from Heero's verbal beating.

Milliardo glared around at all the longing faces, silently telling them that they would be getting nothing from him.

The tension that had been in the room only a few minutes before melted away as everyone forgot about guns and assassins and accidental injuries.

Duo and Dorothy started scheming up ways to force Milliardo to buy them drinks. Some of their plans involved stealing his ID and trying to pass Dorothy or Quatre off as Milliardo. Another was to hogtie him and roast him over a spit until he gave in.

The room soon dissolved into a fit of laughter. Noin closed the computer. There wasn't much left to say, and there was no point in interrupting their fun. As she had so recently been reminded, they were still just kids after all.

A big thanks to all my reviewers. Sadly (or perhaps not) there will only be a few more chapters. If anyone has any special requests—cute scenarios or whatnot—just stick it in a review or email me your idea. I'll see what I can do.