Heero didn't seem to mind so much that Duo had NO idea where he was going. The streets were moderately crowded... just enough so that they would occasionally have to move behind one another, rather than walk side by side. Which irritated Duo... but at the same time fueled his eager spirit. He liked crowds, unlike his significant other. It meant more people. To talk to, laugh at, laugh with, etc. The more the merrier, after all.
"Hey Heero wanna stop somewhere and grab a soda or something?" Yeah, caffeine. EXACTLY what the American needed right now, right? Heero grimaced, and nodded reluctantly. Then Heero's head suddenly whipped around... Duo's brow frowned in concern, and he gently squeeze Heero's hand. "...hey, what is it? You hear somethin'?"
"I'd hear better if you'd shut up," Heero's tone had changed dramatically in that half a second. Then Duo snapped up to attention too. He didn't like what he heard. Neither of them did. Duo's braid was almost standing on end... the American lead off the pursuit. The noise was eerily familiar. It was the sound of pain. They both knew it all to well.
Duo spent a couple seconds darting left and right through people... jumping up and around all over the place to see where the sounds were coming from. It was... a struggle. An argument. More specifically, there were blows being thrown, and he didn't like it. Most of the time, he wouldn't get involved. But there was something totally wrong about it, this time. It was broad daylight in Quatreville, what could possibly bring this... uneasy feeling about? On L2, maybe. But not here.
Heero had similar suspicions. Something was wrong, he wasn't sure he wanted to get involved, but seeing as Duo was going to, it seemed his place by default. He knew the kind of trouble Duo could get himself into. It was strange how one could cause more damage outside of a Gundam than from the inside. The Japanese had mused that he should write his memoirs of his adventures with the misguided Duo Maxwell. There were too many idiot loving fools out there who'd make him rich off that publication... he knew, 'cause he was an idiot lover himself.
Although Heero's thoughts were slightly off track, his body hadn't been. He was a step behind Duo, who apparently had a better scent of the trail. In a near by alley, they found the source of the distress. The alley wound around a small tavern, and in plain view were two men arguing.
One man was rather old and gray, and not the most attractive fellow. He had a large grotesque mole protruding from just above his upper lip with a hair growing from it. The man was screaming at another who seemed middle aged and well dressed. Both were tossled around a bit as if they had been wrestling. Duo looked a second time. Two men fighting? That's it? That couldn't have been the disturbance. Then he jabbed Heero's gut, gesturing to a trail of blood that ran across the alley way as clear as day. Seeing as neither of the men were actually bleeding... this was the problem. There was blood on the hands of the mole man, and something resembling flesh clinging to his oversized ring on his stubby hairy fingers.
Heero had caught it long before he got the painful alert from Duo. Now, Heero would not have approached this scene. If anything he would've ignored it. On the other hand, he might have reported it had he found the opportunity. This was not stuff people waltzed into without a sidearm present. Granted, the old man didn't look like he'd be much of a fight, but the younger one... middle aged, didn't look too out of shape. If things went down, Heero would take the younger one and let Duo have the older one. Duo's speed would probably wear the old geezer out.
Duo's way of approaching the scene was to merely clear his throat. In a loud obnoxious attention getting manner.
"GET OUTTA HERE THIS AIN' NONE OF Y'ALLS BUSINESS! Run along home, boys!" The older man yelled.
"Well I couldn't very well do that Mister, 'cause I am a concerned bystander who in the nature of bystandering will take it upon myself to attempt to resolve this domestic dispute," Duo did a little salute. Heero did not restrain himself from smacking his forehead. Though, he didn't miss out of the corner of his eye, the younger one making a quick exit stage right. "And seein' as that ain't paint on your hand or on the concrete there, I'm thinkin' that this may be a lil' more than run of the mill 'you're fuckin' my wife' sorta trick..."
The old man was furious at this point. The hair growing out of his ears curled as his face began to boil up to a tomato shade of red. He must have not been thinking when he flung himself at Duo. He must not have realized that it was no longer two against two. It was him against Heero's iron fist.
"Hey, y'didn't have to do that. I woulda had him!" Duo gestured impatiently, smacking Heero in the chest with the back of his hand.
"MUST you hit me?" Heero blurted out, causing Duo to start... The American flung himself against the nearest wall as if to flee, beginning his best "please don't hurt me I'll play nice" routine...
...when his jaw dropped. The boy's knuckles turned white as his fingers curled into the wall behind him. It was as if he were a cat trying to scamper up a tree, but it would seem high cut leather boots didn't quite grapple as well as claws. Time stopped. And Duo's head filled with images and visions... as if looking at the scene was bringing back locked memories from his subconscious mind, and he suddenly wished his good friend Death would pay him a visit right about now...
...then he wished it more when Heero smacked the American's senses back into place. Heero didn't seem phased. It was a girl. Beaten. With several distinctive open wounds that looked strangely like a certain face of some mole man's ring. Heero knelt beside her tearing strips from his shirt bandaging her up slowly and carefully.
"We should take her to a hospital."
"How can you be so fucking calm?" Duo peeled himself off the wall, rushing to the little girl's side. "Plus, Quatre's place is closer, and we know where that is." For once he made good sense. Even he was surprised. Duo slipped off his jacket, as Heero sat the girl up slowly to pick her up...wrapping it around her.
"What are you doing? I already patched her wounds," Heero blinked slightly, studying Duo for a moment.
"We're going to carry a girl looking like hell through the streets, and there's blood all over you... when you pick her up the blood on you won't be in plain sight, but she sure as hell will be," Duo poked Heero's forehead, taking brief pleasure in his dumbfounded look.