by Zapenstap
"One more day down. I can't wait for spring break," Melanie laughed as she shut her locker and heaved her bag over her shoulder. "How many weeks have we got left?"
"Three," Heero replied deeply and without much feeling. "And two papers and a project due before."
"Wow, an extra sentence from you. I'm impressed. Even if you do sound like death."
Heero said nothing, but smiled slightly. Melanie winked and they walked in silence out through the commons and into the parking lot. His voice may still be dark, but he felt lighter inside.
"What are you doing for spring break?" Heero asked her as they reached the bus stop. Melanie took the bus home usually, but it was on his way to walk her there.
She looked down at her feet. "Oh, nothing much," she said, and seemed to be avoiding the question. "Relax a little. Take it easy. What are you going to do?" A mischevious light appeared in her eyes. "Are you going to go to see your old friends? You should if you can."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe you could even go to the Earth. I want to go to Earth. I've only been there once and I barely remember it. They say it's really a beautiful place."
"Quatre thinks so. I would have to agree."
"Quatre? Oh, right, one of the other pilots. I still can't get over that. Well, I suppose it's a big part of you I'll never understand."
"Maybe you'll meet them one day," he said off-handedly. "Relena's due to make her rounds to L1 soon. I'll probably see her." He really hadn't thought of that before, but now that he had said it, he realized how much he wanted to. He'd like to see everyone, but he certainly wouldn't go to Earth if she was going to come here. He hadn't seen or heard from anybody since Mandred took him away. He struggled to remember what Relena looked like in person instead of the broadcast images he was now used to. It would be... comforting to spend some time with her.
"Me? Meet Vice Foreign Minister Darilan? That would be fun," Melanie said with a laugh. "Oh, here's my bus. I'll see you Monday, Heero!"
He shrugged and crossed his arms as she boarded. Once Melanie got on the bus, Heero walked the rest of the way home in silence. He used his key to open his door and stepped inside, shutting the door softly behind him. Immediately, his puppy bounded off the couch and rushed to greet him, his little paws skidding on the wood floor. Heero knelt down to tussle with him, encouraging little growls and scratching behind his ears. Like always, the puppy twisted to lick his hands. Heero picked it up off the ground and carried it into the kitchen. He refilled the water bowl, poured some kibble into a dish, and left to put his stuff away while the puppy ate happily. When he came back downstairs, he prepared something for himself to eat and settled back in the couch to start his homework. He preferred to do it in the daylight hours rather than the evenings.
Mandred came home around 5:30, but he was not alone. Heero looked up, expecting to see Immilie, but instead there was another man with Mandred, a much younger man, a few years older than Heero himself. He looked vaguely familiar and after a minute of pondering, Heero pulled out a name.
"Coran," he stated in surprise, putting his homework aside.
"Well if it isn't Heero Yuy. It is a small world," Coran said, removing a long black coat and hanging it up in the hallway closet. "This is where you've established yourself, Mandred?"
Mandred nodded and turned to Heero. "I have some after business business today, Heero," he said.
"What does he have to do with it?" Heero asked, remembering the tall young blonde man's abrupt appearance some time before during an assassination attempt on Relena's life. He had seemed cheerful then, almost careless, but he was quite a bit more sober now. "What's going on?"
"Nothing yet," Coran told him.
"Nothing," Mandred said calmly, almost dismissively. "If there's trouble in the future, I'll let you know about it. You should know that by now, Heero. This is a just an evaluation meeting of something that happened some time ago. It has little to do with you. Come on, Coran. My study is upstairs and there are some things I need to show you."
"All right." Coran turned and grinned at Heero. Coran turned and followed him upstairs.
Heero set down his notebook and brooded for a minute. Mandred had never lied to him before, nor did he think he would. But obviously he was involved in something Heero didn't know about, something covert. Well, whatever it was, he would trust that "nothing" was happening for now. It wasn't his business after all. If anything did happen, he would always be ready. He wondered, though.
The phone rang, surprising him, but he got up and answered it. Answering the phone and the door was something Mandred always expected him to do, without delay, and to always be polite as he knew how. It had been one of the hardest things to learn. The puppy skidded clusmily across the floor and bit at his feet. Heero pressed his hand over the receiver and scolded him, nudging him away. The puppy stopped and looked up at him, blinking big dark eyes.
"Hello?" Heero said into the receiver.
"Hey! Heero?"
"Duo," Heero said in mild astonishment.
"Yeah, man. It's good to hear your voice. How've you been?" Duo said cheerily.
"I'm fine. Where you calling from and how did you get this number?" He didn't mean it to be rude, but he realized it might have sounded that way. "Sorry. That came out wrong."
Puzzlement. "Huh? You're sorry? Well, I'm actually on your colony right now. I'm doing business with one of the shipping companies over here and called the district office to see if they had the number for Mandred. I didn't know his last name, but they knew who I was talking about and gave it to me."
Heero sat down in a chair by the phone as he listened. Come to think of it, he didn't know Mandred's last name either. He'd never thought to ask. "That's great, Duo. I'm glad you called."
"It is? You are? Wow, no kidding. Can I come see you or something? I mean, can you ask Mandred, 'cause he told us before not to interfere and well, I don't know if it'd be breaking some sort of rule."
"I guess. Hold on." Heero set down the receiver and walked up the stairs to Mandred's study. As he approached, he heard voices and then a great flash of azure blue light from beneath the door. Heero blinked, wondering what had caused that. "Mandred," he called.
He heard Coran laugh in amusement.
"What is it, Heero?" Mandred voice came clearly a second later.
"Duo called. He's here for awhile, so I'm going to go out." He didn't think of putting a question in it. Mandred would let him go.
"Bye," Mandred said through the door. "I'll see you later tonight. Call if you're not coming back for dinner or of Duo is coming back with you."
"All right," Heero said. He went back downstairs and picked up the phone. "Where do you want me to meet you?"
"Can you?" Duo said. "Oh, uh... I don't this colony very well. How about the district office, since I know where that is?"
"I'll be there in about twenty minutes."
"Um... okay," Duo said. "Bye."
They both hung up.
Heero picked his puppy up off the floor and put out in the tiny backyard behind the house where it could play and be contained safely by the wooden fence. Then he donned his coat, grabbed his wallet from his book bag and headed out the door. He knew the bus route well enough to know it would be faster walking down a block. The bus came a few minutes late, but it wasn't long before he was dropped off at the district office, still early to meet Duo. Even so, Duo had beat him there and was leaning against the corner of the white stone office building. It was in a building like this that Relena's father had been assassinated. Looking back, he realized that had been a turning and changing point for her. Odd that he would think of it now. Maybe Duo has sparked a smidge of nostalgia in him. He missed his friends.
Duo was digging in the dirt with the toe of his shoe and hadn't yet noticed Heero.
"Hey," Heero said blankly.
Duo started like a spooked rabbit. "Hey, Heero!" he said shakily, putting a hand behind his head and grinning like an idiot. It made Heero smile. "I didn't hear you sneak up on me. I... are you laughing at me?"
Heero realized he sort of had been and made his face go flat. "No. I wouldn't do that."
Duo looked at him suspiciously. "So how have you been doing?" he said, floundering a little, grinning weakly.
"You sound like I've been in an infirmary."
Duo shrugged and bounded to Heero's side. Heero adjusted, turning and walking down the street with Duo on his right. "Well, you know," Duo said, gesturing pointlessly. "You're leavin' was kind of abrupt and we don't much about that Mandred guy. Relena's the only one who seemed okay with it, but she still talks about you a lot. Or so Noin says, anyway."
Heero smiled. Oh yeah? "If you see her, tell her I said hi," he said.
Duo stared at him and then shook his head as if clearing out his thoughts. "So how has this Mandred guy been?"
Heero paused. "He's been really good to me," he said, looking straight ahead of him with unblinking eyes. "I knew him long ago, but he's not like anybody I've ever met before." He gestured lightly, something he used to never do, but he'd been picking it up from Melanie. "We talk, but in this strange, direct way. He asks a question you already know the answer to and then confirms your own thoughts with these profound statements. He'll talk about anything without blinking an eyelash. He seems to have personal experience with everything." He shook himself internally and looked back at Duo, finding it strange that he was there at all, listening to him talk. It was peculiarly comforting.
Duo blinked, his face now contemplative instead of plastered with a rakish grin. "Did he ever fight in a war?"
Heero looked out into nothing, pondering. "I never asked, but now that you mention it, I think so. He seems to know a lot, about me, about the war, about the world, and stranger things. I don't know how he knows so much. He doesn't look that old."
"He seemed old to me when he came for you," Duo interjected.
"He doesn't look that old," Heero repeated. "He's seems maybe as young as thirty, but I can't imagine him a hair younger. I don't see how he could ever have been our age, or ever lived a life like mine, but what he says makes it seems like he was and he has. I've never asked him about his past before. And we don't talk about the war much."
Duo said nothing for a long moment. "Oh," he said finally.
Heer smiled. "Why don't you just come to dinner and meet him? He had some business with Coran, but that's probably over by now."
"Coran?" Duo exclaimed. "That guy from before? Man, first Felicia and now him? What are they up to?"
"I don't know," Heero said truthfully. "Mandred told me nothing was happening when I asked, and I believe him. He said they were taking care of old business."
"Like that jewery theft," Duo muttered.
Heero had heard that story already. "Yeah, maybe that. I'm not sure. But why don't you come to dinner?"
Duo shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "I will. That way I don't have to buy my own!"
Heero nodded and smiled inwardly.
They walked in silence for a minute. "Hey, Heero," Duo said suddenly.
"What?" Heero asked.
"We just had a conversation."
Heero smiled at him. "I'm getting better at that," he said. "When I have to."
Duo grinned. "So I see. What's for dinner?"
Heero shrugged. "I'll call Mandred and ask while we wait for the
bus," he said.
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