Long chapter this time, people. Couldn't write fast enough. ^_^ Thank you all for the kind reviews, it's helping a lot.
Sorry about that mix up with the chapters. This is the real chapter 11.
Chapter 11
Hilde stood outside Duo's bedroom, waiting. They had both fallen asleep on each other during a movie, and were going out today. He had allowed her the facilities first, and was now out of the shower and changing. She was tempted to open the door and sneak a peek, and knowing him, he probably wouldn't even care. Ah, that took half the fun out of it anyway. At last, Duo opened the door and showed himself, in virtually the same outfit as always. She'd have to check out his closet one of these days.
"Lookin' good, babe! C'mon, or we'll be late!" Duo pretty much dragged Hilde out the door, just in time to pass a very tired looking Heero. He looked like a zombie, a far cry from the usual alert superhuman soldier.
"What the? Heero, bud, you okay?" Duo jogged up beside him, and matched his pace. "What happened?"
Heero simply ignored him, and Duo stopped walking, just watching him slowly shuffle into his quarters, leaving the door open behind him. Duo followed him, poking his head around the doorframe to look for Heero. He got there just in time to see Heero's form disappear into the bedroom, once again leaving the door open. Duo walking in after him, and looked through the doorway. Heero was now lying on his bed staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. Duo shook his head. There was only one person in this building who could conceivably make Heero act like this, and only one other who could know how to get him out of it. The former would be Relena, and the latter was Jai. Duo sighed, and walked back out the door, wondering why the hell it wasn't as easy for Heero as it had been for him. For him, realizing he loved Hilde was like…well, it was really simple. For Heero to realize anything of the sort was like fighting an Aries with a cantaloupe.
Hilde met him outside the quarters. "Well? What happened? How is he?"
"Let's just say that the same thing would have happened to me if I had taken any longer to let you into my life. C'mon. We gotta go get Jai." With a bewildered Hilde in tow, he headed to Jai's rooms.
Jai leaned backward, going into a bridge, her hands flat on the floor. One leg, then the other, arced over her and then both were above her, in a full handstand. She began doing slow pushups, easily keeping her balance. She often used her own generously spacious quarters for her morning exercises, inasmuch as Wufei and Sally both took at least an hour just for meditating, not to mention their actual training. This was much more private, anyway, and she preferred it that way.
A knock on the door interrupted her, and she performed a graceful flip back to her feet, before walking to answer it.
"Well, you're up early. I didn't expect to see YOU until sometime this evening."
For once, Duo was speechless. "Wha…why?"
"How was the circus?"
It hit Duo right then. "It was you! YOU carved up my floor!"
Jai smiled and bowed. "Looks like you had help, though. Good thing too, or you'd still be there."
"Oh..just….Oh, I'll get you for this later. C'mon. Soldier boy is out of commission."
"Who's out of WHAT now? Hey! Get back here!" She watched them both start back toward Heero's quarters. "Shit!" she muttered to herself, before following. Heero's quarters were not far away, so it only took about a minute to get there,
"Why the hell is his door open? He NEVER leaves his door open." They stepped inside, and Jai immediately noticed a second open door. This one to Heero's bedroom, where Duo was already headed. Jai pushed around him, and saw Heero still in the same position he left him in.
Duo was beginning to get creeped out. Heero had his hands locked over his chest, and his legs were completely straight. Right against each other, too.
"Man, he looks like he's in a coffin. That's just not right. Here. This ought to at least get a reaction out of him." Duo reached for Heero's gun, which he kept in a holster at his hip. Duo then found himself staring down the barrel of that same gun.
So far, Heero's arm was the only thing that had moved, aside from his mouth, which uttered something unintelligible. Jai simply smiled at the little exchange, and Duo's wide eyes.
"Oooookaay. Heero, buddy, you need to cut down on the caffeine. You're getting hyper. Not to mention trigger happy." Duo reached up and slowly pushed the gun away from his face, though he knew better than to try and take it. Heero blinked. He blinked again, and let the gun fall to the floor. His arm just went limp, and dangled over the side of the bed while he continued his intent inspection of the ceiling.
He said an actual word for the first time in twenty minutes. "Out. Now."
Jai looked at Duo and Hilde, and nodded. They nodded back, and left, closing the door behind them.
Jai sat in a bedside chair, and turned to Heero. "Now what's wrong with YOU? You were fine last night. And I've never seen you act like this before. What happened? I smell chlorine, so I'm guessing you were at the pool."
Heero showed no reaction. If anything, he looked more distant.
"Heero, if you won't give it to me, I'll go in and get it. I don't want to, and I'd rather not have to. Last chance."
Again, no reaction. 'Oh, well. Here goes.' She closed her eyes and, for once, there was no barrier to her. He had been able to repel her any time she had ever tried this before. She was getting more and more worried. Even worse was the first thing she saw. Relena, in the pool, clawing at the water like she was being pulled down. She felt the wrench of emotion that went with the memory, and bit her lip. The memory continued, everything a blur except the mad rush for Relena, wrapping an arm around her waist and rocketing toward the surface, the frantic hope that she hadn't drowned. She continued to watch, as Heero virtually threw her out of the water, them leaping out himself and feeling for a pulse. The blue eyes snapped open, locking onto Heero's, and she embraced him, as he blindly did the same to her.
She'd seen enough, and pulled out of his mind. She looked at him when her vision cleared, and was astonished at what she saw. The expression was still the same, but there was a wetness glittering in the crystal blue eyes. She placed a hand on his, over his chest.
Part of her was happy that he was this human again, and could experience what she could once more. Their private victory over their teachers, she thought, and smiled bitterly. Another part pitied him that the first emotion he had felt so intensely in so long was this one.
"Heero. She didn't drown. She's still here. And she still loves you. And we both know good and well that you love her."
"I can't give her what she deserves."
"And just what does she deserve, Heero? To be ignored and rejected? All she wants is you." She was becoming slightly annoyed, now.
Heero turned silent again.
Jai seethed. He had never done this to her. Not since their days in training, when he had been "programmed". Why were supposedly grown men so colossaly stupid? She sighed, and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest, staring at him.
"Heero, you almost lost your chance today. Next time you may not be there." She stood up, and prepared to leave. "Think on that. What sense does it make? You both love each other, and at least you know both of you feel the same way. If you don't let her in soon, she'll give up, and be gone. You don't want that." With that, she turned on her heel, and left.
Heero, now back among the living, sat up, and leaned forward, cupping his face in his hands. There were three cures for these emotions. Booze, booze, and more booze.
Quatre remained in his quarters for the morning, waiting for his afternoon shift with the rest of the pilots. They all had other jobs here at H.Q. to keep them busy during non-combat contingencies. Mostly investigatory work, especially since Hilde gave them the info on the gundamium situation. He for one was dying to test the new upgrades. He thought of the dolls as training dummies. It was better that way.
His mind was invaded once again by thoughts of Jai, annoying yet not entirely unwelcome. He wished he could at least control WHEN he thought about her. He almost hoped this was simply a fixation, but he suspected something else was brewing. He'd saw off both his feet with a nail file before he'd tell that to HER, naturally.
Once three o clock rolled around, he ceased lounging and headed for the pilot's meeting room. He met up with Trowa in the hallway, and talked with him while the strolled along. They passed Heero's quarters, and then Jai's, and when they were in front of Duo's, they suddenly heard a comparatively small explosion. They both whipped out their guns, expecting an attack of some sort. Instead, they heard rushing water and a loud scream. Jai's door banged open, and Jai, dripping wet, lunged through the doorway, gun drawn and eyes stabbing blue fire.
"WHERE IS HE?!?!?!?!" yelled a seemingly hysterical Jai, as both Quatre and Trowa noticed that her T shirt was no longer opaque, and did little, if anything, to obstruct extreme visibility. Quatre's eyes widened for a moment as he stared, and then quickly looked away as Trowa quietly shook with barely contained laughter.
"THAT BASTARD!!!! HE BLEW UP MY FUCKING TOILET!!!!" She yelled, as she took off down the hall, intent on murder. Trowa and Quatre watched through eyes blinded by tears.
Duo stood outside a small café he liked to go to for lunch, looking at a small handheld computer with a wide smile on his face. He had ear phones on as well, and had heard Jai's screams. He had planted a small tracking device in her shoe, as well as a small audio transmitter. He watched her position, and it was bearing down on him. His grin widened, anticipating a chase. She must have planted one on him, too. He hopped on his motorcycle, put his helmet on, and roared off.
Jai could not remember the last time she had been so pissed. She had hooked the tracking system into her helmets visor, so she could see exactly where he was at all times. She would simply keep track of him for a while, so she could think of creative ways to kill him. She grinned as she began the process, and sped up.
She had walked into the bathroom to …..use the facilities, and had taken two steps before the seat blew off the toilet, followed by a pillar of water. Son of a bitch must have flushed an explosive charge down it, or something. She was just glad he had the decency to set it off before she sat down.
She had already reasoned that he must have bugged her bathroom, but nothing had shown any signs of tampering. He was good, she had to admit, and had at least half a working brain, too, to have gotten that far from H.Q. before detonating. Oh, well. He still had to die.
Trowa and Quatre walked into the meeting room, noting the absence of Heero and Duo. Wufei was the only one there, and was already typing.
"Wufei, have you seen Heero? I have a pretty good idea where Duo is, but Heero's never late."
"No. And where IS that braided baka? I haven't seen him all morning. That's fine by me, but I suspect he's plotting something." Wufei shifted in his seat, turning to face the other two.
"No kidding. I'm pretty sure he blew up Jai's toilet while she was in the immediate vicinity. If she catches him, he'll be lucky if she doesn't staple his lips to his ass." Trowa said, and smiles appeared on the faces of the three pilots, as they envisioned Duo's homecoming.
"She may not even catch him. Have you SEEN what Duo does when he gets desperate? He can run like all hell when he needs to, and that damn bike of his can probably break the speed of sound." They all looked at Wufei, who smirked.
All of them, at the same time, decided to go see for themselves. This was too good to miss. A man who could win gold in freestyle fleeing versus a P.O'd female terminator. Quatre and Trowa headed for the parking garage while Wufei shut down his laptop and grabbed his jacket.
Duo watched the little blip on his visor, staying pretty much the same distance from him, though staying with him at all times. Time to have some fun. He slowed down, hoping to bait her into attack. It seemed to work. The blip sped up, homing in on him. His grin broadened as adrenaline flowed. He really had no idea what he'd do once she caught up with him.
'Ah, who cares. I'll think on that when I have to.'
Jai saw the blip on her visor slow, and surged forward. 'He must be stopping. I'll get him now.'
Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei had taken off on their motorcycles, updating each other as they criss-crossed the city, searching for any sign of either Jai or Duo. They had had no luck, as of yet.
"You see anything, Trowa?"
"Nope. You?"
"Not yet. Keep looking."
"Roger that."
Quatre swerved around another car, increasing his speed. This was fun, he had to admit. The hunt. He grinned devilishly, and contacted Wufei.
"Wufei, you got anything?"
"I think I see that baka Maxwell, but no sign of that murderous onna."
"Alright. Jai should be after him, and if you could find him, she can. I'll call Trowa, you keep on Duo."
"Roger."
Wufei closely trailed Duo, identifiable by his braid trailing behind him, and the solid black motorcycle. Jai's was dark purple, with nondescript lightning bolts on it. Silly onna, having that painted on her bike. The only mark he allowed on any of his belongings was the Chinese symbol for his wife's name, which made more sense than lightning bolts.
He was suddenly passed at high speed by said motorcycle, bearing down on Duo, who accelerated. Wufei kept them in sight, but just barely. One was desperate to kill and the other was desperate to survive, which would make for very interesting viewing later.
'Thank you, Maxwell.' He had taken a cue from Duo and mounted a small camera onto his bike's headlight. He'd be watching this for years.
Quatre and Trowa soon caught up with him, and managed to keep a visual lock on the dueling bikes. This was not easy. If they just kept going in a straight line, they'd be in Sanc by nightfall.
Jai and Duo swerved into a parking garage, maybe fifty feet separating them, followed by the trio of thrill seekers. When they entered after Jai, she was going up a ramp, onto the next floor. They followed suit, and saw that Jai had stopped, and was running with her helmet still on.
Jai came to a car, and ripped an envelope off its trunk. She tore it open, and there, inside, was the tracking device she had planted on Duo, along with a note.
'You've been had by Duo Maxwell.'
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!! DAMMIT all to HELL!!! The rest of the pilots decided to abandon the garage, as there was no telling what she would do in her current state. They'd wait back at H.Q. Duo had to come back sometime.
Duo was watching this with a wide grin on his face. He almost hadn't made it. He had managed to gain some distance on Jai before coming here, and had had the note and device ready to plant beforehand. He had whacked it onto the car, and gotten just around the corner, and turned completely sideways to slide under a large truck, turning the motor off immediately.
He listened to Jai's muted curses through the headphones in his helmet, and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. When she finally left, after cursing Duo and whatever children he might have, he dragged his bike out from under the truck, and, careful to steer clear of Jai, rode back to H.Q, the last place she'd look.
Once he got there, he decided to check up on Heero, and headed for his quarters. Whatever had happened almost certainly involved Relena. He had nothing against Relena, but she was starting to screw Heero up.
He came to Heero's door, and opened it. He was immediately overpowered by the smell of alcohol, and gagged. He called out,
"Heero? You in here?" He at that time noticed the kitchen counter, which had on it three empty wine bottles, an empty bottle of saki, and two empty bottles of what appeared to be vodka.
"Oh, Christ." He suddenly had a bad feeling about this. He turned around and came face to face with Heero's gun for the second time that day.
"Duo. Whad the 'ell are you d'oig 'ere." Duo almost laughed at that, but then noticed he was waving the gun slowly back and forth, along with the rest of him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked pale.
"Jeez, man, how much CAN you drink?" He slowly took the gun from him, and laid him on the couch. Well, he needed help here. Heero's bloodstream was probably about 95 percent Smirnoff, and he had gone from Perfect soldier to possibly having to get his stomach pumped. He may very well be pumping his own stomach into the toilet in about five minutes, to judge from the look of him.
"Duo. Gimme m' gon. M' gon, god…dab it." Heero waved his arm around randomly for a second, before he let it fall. He tried to get up, but only got halfway before falling back and hitting his head on the armrest with a dull thud, followed by a slight groan.
Duo let himself laugh silently for a second, before he decided to tempt fate and call Jai. He tapped into her frequency from Heero's laptop, and let her answer.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Jai."
"DUO?!? What the hell do you want? Better yet, just stay on the line for a sec so I can track you."
"You don't need to track me. I'm back at H.Q., in Heero's room. He's wasted. I'm gonna need your help."
"HEERO'S wasted? Do you know how much he had?"
"Well, he was nice enough to line up all six of the empty booze bottles on the kitchen counter, and all have labels, so let's see…. he had at LEAST three bottles of straight wine, a bottle of saki, and two bottles of vodka. The boy's gotta have a liver the size of a basketball."
"Godammit. All right, I'm on my way. I'll bring Quatre, Trowa and Wufei with me. I saw them following us."
"Yeah, me too. Do that."
"See ya later" Jai said, a sinister undertone in those two point five words that told him to go to Antarctica and never come back. She cut the transmission, and Duo stared at the computer for a second before shrugging and hanging up. He walked back to Heero, who was mumbling something unintelligible, and waving his arms in the air.
He sat down in chair opposite Heero, wondering just what the hell you do with someone this drunk. The guy couldn't even stand, and yesterday you wouldn't have been able to knock him down with a sledgehammer.
"Heero, bud, you sure do go to the extreme. You get drunk, you don't just get a little sick, you kill as many brain cells as you can without going into a coma." Duo laughed at himself for a moment, which seemed to encourage Heero to make odd noises. Halfway between a groan and a burp.
Duo just sat there and watched Heero wave and mumble until he heard a knock at the door. He suspected he knew who it was, and went to answer it.
"Why, Jai, such a pleasant surpRISE." His voice raised several octaves as Jai's shoe connected with one of the most valued portions of his body. His hands immediately went to hold this portion, and he leaned against the wall next to the door as one eye twitched and he sat down.
The other three pilots went into mass cringe, hunching up and involuntarily protecting as many body parts as possible. Wufei laughed at him for a moment, but sympathy for a man who had just been bashed in the balls overcame him after a couple of seconds. The three of them half dragged Duo to the chair he had been sitting in, and proceeded to make pained faces at him.
Jai tried to talk to Heero, but to no avail. He was pretty much incoherent. His answer to almost everything was to ask Duo for his gun back. And whenever his gun was mentioned, he said, "M' gon? Wher m' gon?"
"Well, now we know what fills a good percentage of his subconscious. Even when he doesn't know his name, he wants his gun. How many of those damn things does he have, anyway? I remember I snuck in here and…borrowed…the four I could find, and he came to my door twenty minutes later with another one aimed at my face." Said a recovered Duo.
"I have no idea. It's like they materialize whenever he needs them." Said Trowa, who had never seen Heero without a gun. Even when he had blown up in Wing, and he had been in a coma for a month, he woke up and within a day had somehow managed to procure a gun without leaving Trowa's trailer.
Heero suddenly tensed, and said, "M gonna frow ub. Outta m' way. Jai and Duo helped him into the bathroom, and the other three were then treated to the sounds of barfing, and a shocked "Holy shit!" from Duo.
Duo came out a minute later, wide eyed.
"I have NEVER seen ANYONE puke that much. It's like he had a fire hose aimed out his mouth."
Quatre and Trowa both smiled, and Wufei's face acquired a look of slight disgust.
Jai came back out with a stumbling Heero, and laid him back on the couch. She looked at Duo and said
"Baka. Well, there's no need for us all to be here. Just maybe one or two people to help him if he needs to go do THAT, " she said with a nod towards the bathroom, "again. Besides, some of us are supposed to be working." With that, she simply walked out the door, leaving all the pilots staring after her. Even Heero, though his stare was somewhat uneven.
Duo shrugged. "Who needs work? This is more fun." He grinned
Quatre, never one to miss out on an unexpected opportunity, got up to leave.
Duo whistled. Quatre turned to him, a smile on his face, but death in his eyes. Duo, never having seen that combination, was a little startled. He cringed slightly, and his eyes widened.
"Did you say something, Duo?"
"No Sir. Not one peep." Duo said, not much humor in his voice, for once.
Satisfied, Quatre turned, and walked out the door.
Duo looked at Wufei. "Did you SEE that? How can you be so nice and let someone know you're going to murder them in the same sentence?"
Wufei smirked at him, and, and snorted,