~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A small wisp of gray steam coiled and then disappeared as it left its warmth oft he hot chocolate on which it came from. A girl sighed contently as she sipped the warm substance gingerly and then smiled as the warmth spread throughout her tired body.
"Tough night, huh?" a voice came from beside her.
Thegirl turned her head to face a young man a few inches taller than she and smiled.
"Yes, it was."
The boy grinned and offered her a jacket. "It's kind of chilly out here," he stated. "So I thought you might like a jacket."
"Thanks, Duo."
Duo nodded and draped the jacket over her shoulders. "You're welcome, Hanami."
Hanami smiled and returned her gaze to her mug. The eight pilots had only just returned to the base a few hours earlier…
~*~*~*~
"Before we get anywhere else I would like to know what you three women have to do with all this," A young Chinese man asked.
"We're gundam pilots just as you are." Kawa spoke, folding her arms across her blue tank.
"And we are after the same thing y'a'l are." Hanami finished.
"How is it that you knew about us?" Trowa asked.
Kawa's blue oculars averted to Trowa; he was the same young man she had spoken to not but a day ago.
"I discovered it on my lap top, when I was looking for more information on OZ . It wasn't that hard to figure out." Ikasu chimed in.
"How do we know you guys just aren't some kind of OZ cover ups?" The braided boy asked.
"Duo, if they were cover-ups do you think they would go after their own troops? And when they knew it was a decoy?" Heero asked, his expression inscrutable.
Duo frowned and glared at the girls accusingly but then smiled. "I suppose you're right. I mean, how could an evil corporation have three lovely young women as employees?"
Hanami blushed slightly while Kawa and Ikasu seemed indifferent. The two girls each had their eye on a different pilot, but also wanted to seem as serious as possible.
"There's no time for flirting now, Duo," Trowa stated. "We know have to figure out wheret o strike next."
"Trowa's right," the Chinese man said from the far corner of the room. "We cannot screw up again."
"It might be better if we discuss this in the morning," Quatre suggested. "After a full nights sleep."
The others agreed reluctantly and all went their separate ways.
~*~*~
"I'll show you to your room now." Quatre spoke as he joined Duo and Hanami.
"That's all right, Quatre, she can bunk with me." Duo joked.
Hanami giggled. "That's quite all right Duo."
Quatre laughed nervously and Duo's statement and asked, "Shall we go?"
Hanami smiled and returned the jacket she wore to Duo. "Thanks for the jacket."
Duo smiled and pushed it back toward her. "Keep it, lets just say it's a welcome tothe group gift!"
The young girl pilot smiled and shrugged the jacket on again. "Thanks again. Are you sure though?"
"Yeah, absolutely, not a problem."
Hanami grinned, showing off her pearly whites, and then followed her newly made blonde-haired friend Quatre toward a tall gray building.
Duo grinned to himself as she walked off. "Not a problem, not a problem at all, hehheh."
~*~*~*~*
Ikasu lay in her room on the small cot like bed pushed against the farthest wall from the door. She gave out a long sigh as she looked lazily over to her backpack in the corner.
"Maybe tonight I'll just sleep in my clothes," she thought aloud to herself.
"Hey Ikasu are you in there?" a voice whispered from the other side of her door.
Ikasu's eyes looked to the side toward the door and asked, "Yeah, Kawa, what's up?"
Kawa creaked the door open slowly and stepped a fuzzy bunny slipper inside the room.
Ikasu sat up and crossed her legs as Kawa joined her on the bed.
"What's on your mind?" Ikasu asked again.
"It's the gundam boys," Kawa said.
"What about them?"
Kawa blushed. "I just don't think I can concentrate on my mission…"
"With all the handsome faces around?" The two girls sitting on the cot looked to the figure standing in the doorway. "Sorry, I heard you guys talking, and I couldn't sleep either, so I thought I would join you."
Kawa smiled and laughed a bit. "It's all right, thanks for finishing my sentence though, Hanami."
Hanami grinned and jumped on the bed with the other two and made a happy peace sign.
The girls laughed and then Ikasu poked Kawa. "I didn't know you were that into guys!" she giggled. "Who do you have your eye on?"
Kawa blushed and shook her head. "Not telling!"
"Aww, come on Kawa-chan!" Hanami pleaded.
*~*~*~*~
Elsewhere the five gundam boys sat seated around a large round table all of themstaring at a device in the center of the table.
"Come on Kawa!" Ikasu's voice sounded from the mechanism.
"This really isn't right Duo." Quatre said looking worriedly to the device. "I mean it's invading their privacy.."
"Oh, come on, Quatre, don't you want to know who they like?"
"Well ... yes... But not in this way!"
Trowa shook his head. "This is irrelevant to our mission, you said we were going to have a meeting."
Duo gave an evil grin. "Well, I lied."
Heero gave a sigh and was about to say something when he heard his name over themachine.
"Hah! Someone likes Heero!"
Heerohad a slight redness in his cheeks but it quickly vanished as Wufei smashed theblack device with his fist.
"Thisis pointless, we have a mission to complete." he stated standing.
"Aww, is wittle Wuffers jealous of Heero?" Duo teased.
Wufei glared at Duo and then walked out, muttering to himself and trying to block out Maxwell's loud laughter.