Already Tear-Stained


Part 2

***


"Wufei, you're not up yet?!" Quatre squealed, stopping dead, past Wufei's doorway and turning back.

One of Wufei's eye's opened slowly, but he didn't make any move to speak before it was shut again.

Quatre hurried in, over to the bed and looked at the sleepy pilot. Ok, so he looked like crap, but
that didn't instantly mean he had a cold. "Wufei. The mission." The blonde whinned and tried shaking
his shoulder a little.

Wufei made a strange goaning noise and tried to turn away. He was so tired, he hadn't been able to
sleep well last night.

"Wufei," Quatre said sounding a little POed, "You do realize this is injustice," and smirked.

"You have no right to speak of justice," the chinese boy grummbled, making it sound as though he'd
been talking in his sleep, and turned right over.

Quatre thought of mentioning that *that* would also be injustice somehow, but decided instead to
stop there. "Well, Trowa and I are going to blow some stuff up. I guess you can stay here.." Quatre
sighed, shrugged, and left the room, leaving a stupidly sleepy Wufei behind, alone in the safe house
for a whole day.


***


Heero walked down the stairs slowly, and with little visible difficulty. Scratching the back of one
of his arms and yawned. Last night, and even now, all he could seem to think of was Trowa. Hoping,
for his sake, Quatre had stayed well enough away from Trowa yesterday. He hadn't even given his
mission a second thought all night. No, last night's dreams were those of a more pleasing nature.

Heero passed the last step and stopped, just noticing a quiet Duo on the couch. For a minute he
wondered if the pilot had stayed there all night, but he recalled Duo going upstairs before he, to
prevent him from asking about it. Even so, he still had questions, "Duo, what are you doing up so
early?" he asked quietly and without even the slightest bit of concern.

Duo looked up and smiled, "Oh hey, Heero. I was just thinking about stuff." That reply sounded
strange and foriegn to Heero's ears, but even more so to Duo's tongue. Very unlike him to be so
nonchalant at any given time.

And somehow Heero's heart begged him to speak to the boy. Follow his fucking emotions and talk to
him. So he did, and with great dificulty -as was to be expected.

He slowly and cautiously made his way over to the couch and sat down beside Duo. "Want to talk about
it?" It was probably a good thing to do this, he could practice being nice and caring on Duo for
today.

Duo raised his head in surprise and his eyes widened, but before he could say anything Heero decided
to speak so he wouldn't be rejected. "Quatre told me.. about some stuff." He felt so uncomfortable
but still pressed on. "Duo I think you should go back to Quatre's safe house."

"But Heero," Duo protested, all the while shocked that Heero knew about Wufei and the fact that he
had said a sentence that did not contain the phrase 'omae o korosu'.

"This isn't your mission, Duo. There is no reason for you to be here." And with that Heero got up
and went upstairs to ready for his mission, leaving Duo no other choice but to leave.


***


Wufei closed his drooling mouth and breathed through his nose.

*siffle sniffle*

Or, atleast *tried* to. Yep. He definately had a cold.

Wufei hefted himself out of bed hesitantly, a brush of cool air encasing his frame, except his legs,
which were still under the sheets. He really needed to put a shirt on. But instead he headed to the
kitchen -if he didn't need warmth in a rain storm, he didn't need it now.

Immediately he got a head rush, and his legs were less than strong and flexible on the trip down.
Wufei cursed himself for being so weak. For being weak at the knees whenever he thought of Duo, and
for missing out on a mission because of a stupid cold.

"Having a stuffy nose is no reason to miss out on a mission," he grumbled bitterly to himself and
opted for some tea instead of Duo's stale Corn Pops.

Wufei sipped his tea with a burnt tongue. He had decided not to appear weak infront of the cup and,
despite the fact that the water had *just* been boiled, drank it without the slightest flinch. That
helped him warm up. The weak need shirts, Wufei smirked idiotically and put his empty cup onto the
kitchen counter.

Then he heard the door creak open and his training kicked in, burnt tongue forgotten.


***


Quatre watched as the final warehouse building went up in flames and sat back more comfortably in
the cockpit of Sandrock. Admiring the machine's ability, and also Trowa's. The wide spread flames
blazed fiercly across an otherwise dark night sky and it was no wonder the explosives set up had
taken all day. There was absolutely no way any mobile doll stored in the building could have stayed
intact with the amount of explosives Trowa suggest they use.

"Good job, Trowa." Quatre said cheerfuly over the Gundams' communication system. Time had passed,
but the other line was silent. The blond grew somewhat concerned rather quickly, looking out across
the area at Gundam HeavyArms, then flicked another switch for visual. "Trowa?" he called out
uncertainly.

From the small screen Quatre could see Trowa staring at something on his own screen, making him feel
uneasy. "Tr--"

"Have you seen the news?" Trowa interupted, the question was asked with an air of death to it; yet
another unnerving thing for Quatre, but he didn't seem to take any notice. His Gundam could have
been engulfed in the flames that were eating away at the building they had just blown up, and there
was a good chance he'd of died in shock.

He quietly nodded and flicked on afew screens upon screens that would allow him to veiw various News
stations around the world and from the colonies. Images of Gundam 01 flashed around playfully on
afew, others bore images of a more frightening nature. Quatre, light hearted Quatre, stared at
numerous pictures of Heero's Gundam, blown to pieces.


***


Duo walked through the door, wincing at the annoying noise it made, but remembering Quatre had
refused to have it fixed because they'd be able to hear when someone enters. Then he remembered what
Wufei had said to that. 'The weak need squeaky doors. I could hear an intruder in my sleep.'

"Duo?" Wufei asked appearing from the kitchen... without a shirt on.

Duo's eyes bulged. "Umm.. hey, Wufei," he said trying not to choke on his words. He'd never seen
Wufei without a shirt on, or pants.

Wufei was quickly reminded he was only wearing boxers, but insantly appeared to be calm. The weak
need shirts, he chanted in his head, the weak need.. pants.

"Uhh, weren't you supposed to be on a mission with Quatre and Trowa this morning?" Duo asked
nervously, still standing just infront of the door with his duffel bag in hand.

Luckily, Duo could have kept up a conversation in his sleep, so he wasn't too worried about Wufei's
distracting, tan skin.


***


The emotions Quatre was sensing from Trowa were so strong and dark he'd wondered why he hadn't
picked up on them sooner. He continued watching 3 stations, closing the other useless ones down, and
also kept an eye on his partner.

From inside HeavyArms, Trowa just stared at the screens blankly. Not knowing what to think or even
how to react. Naturally he felt devistated, but also disbelieving. Could these News stations be
telling him correctly? Had Wing *really* been blown up?

Of course. The pictures are right there.

But.. what of the pilot? What of Heero Yuy?

Trowa felt like screaming, but little would come of it and he didn't feel he could be so emotional.
Although right now he was coming close. Why couldn't he hear what they were saying? ..what had
happened?

Questions flew through Trowa's mind a mile-a-minute, that was probably the reason he couldn't hear.
He didn't *want* to. So confusing and so little time to think, not enough time for his brain to
function properly. Heero could be dead.

But no! Heero was a strong pilot! Not one to go and carelessly get his Gundam, and himself,
destroyed. Wait, Trowa thought and recalled the time Heero had pressed that stupid detenation
button, destroying 01 almost to the point of no repair. He'd taken the boy in then.

That's when it all started.