The Urchin: Part Nine

By Banshi

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Hell did not even begin to describe the last week. Trowa was exhausted as he flopped down onto his futon. Duo was already snoring on the other bed, having collapsed onto it, fully dressed a few minutes ago.

There had been a fire at the clinic, and the emergency teams had only been called in once there was a danger to this sector's oxygen levels. Duo and Trowa had already been on-site for an hour by the time the fire engines showed up.

Neither had said very complimentary things about the boys in tarp.

While Duo's scheme concerning the ID's had worked like a charm, there was now some doubt as to whether they would ever find out who was behind all the inconvenient vandalism. They had hacked into the police database, but the files on the vandalism hadn't been there. Now they were checking all of the other possible places that the records could be. So far they hadn't had much luck.

Trowa tried to force himself to relax, and listened to Duo's breathing. It wasn't the slow, even breathing of deep sleep, but he was asleep. Trowa brought his fingers to his lips, touching the skin. These lips had met Duo's twice, and he still tingled at the memory. He knew his own motives and feelings, but was still unsure of Duo's. Yes, he had kissed him, but seemed to be unaware that he had. Yes, Trowa had kissed him back later in the day, but neither of them had mentioned it.

Maybe, Duo had acted on a spur of the moment impulse, and didn't want to embarrass Trowa by saying so? Trowa had seen him kiss Hilde often enough, on the cheek, hands, sometimes even a quick peck on her mouth. They all knew for a fact that Duo didn't feel that way about her, so the "just friends" scenario was plausible.

This would have depressed Trowa if he hadn't been catching Duo taking quick glances at him whenever the other man thought he wouldn't notice. They hadn't been wholly curious, nor wholly innocent looks either. Just remembering the gaze that those indigo eyes had shot him earlier that day was enough to make Trowa's blood heat.

Each look, touch, glance, kiss was a memory that Trowa made sure would be locked in his heart until the day he died. Most ended up right next to that dream from weeks ago.

Trowa did turn to look at his friend, who was snoring softly into his pillow, less than three feet away. Taking in the relaxed sprawl of his lean body and the blank facial expression, a part of Towa warned that it would stay a dream if he kept dancing around the issue. It wouldn't do any good to moon over Duo when he was asleep, if Trowa was afraid of saying anything while he was awake.

Trowa sighed and turned away, half-heartedly hoping for another visit from his dream-Duo. Because he had no idea how to go about getting the real one.

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Trowa returned to the house the next afternoon on his own. He wasn't entirely surprised to find Heero sitting in the kitchen, setting up his laptop. "What raised the red flag?" Trowa asked as he poured himself some orange juice.

"The fingerprints that you ran, after the memorial gala." Heero didn't even look up from the machine, but Trowa paused. He remembered the brash aristocrat bad-mouthing Duo. He also remembered that the only file to show up in his search was the guy's academic record. He hadn't been involved with the wars at all.

"What about them?"

"Between 60 and 48 hours ago, your files became the only record that he ever existed."

The enormity of Heero's statement hit Trowa like a fist to the gut. His mind kicked into a higher gear, running through options he hadn't considered since he destroyed Heavyarms.

Trowa's first conclusion was that he and Duo would need help much sooner than anticipated. "Do the Preventers know?"

"Yes. Wufei has been given the case on low priority status until we know more." Heero finally looked up at Trowa, as if waiting for something. It was then that the taller man noticed the inclusive pronoun.

"We?" Heero shifted in his seat once, but the action screamed his discomfort.

"Quatre called me...after Duo called him. He was worried about you two and some child-gangs taking on the L2 authorities." Heero shrugged as if that explained everything.

"We're not taking on the L2 authorities. Just the government of this colony." Heero looked up sharply at Trowa's tone of voice. Trowa gave a completely internal sigh; it had sounded more like Duo's. Looking his friend in the eye, Trowa hoped that Heero understood that they were taking small steps deliberately. They couldn't just hand the guilty parties over to Une and expect the problem to go away. Heero had to understand that or he would do more harm than good. Fortunately, Trowa was saved from having to start that weighty conversation.

Seven children poured into the small house, followed by a bedraggled Duo, who was carrying a large postal package. It was obviously from Quatre, given the WEI insignia on the sides. Trowa moved to help his friend, and together they got the box to land with a thud on the kitchen floor. Duo stood, stretching his back and the children laughed at the resulting chorus of popping sounds.

Duo stuck his tongue out at them before turning back to the adults. "Thanks Tro. Hey Heero! What're you doing here?" A bright gleeful grin spread across Duo's face. Heero shrugged casually and waved a hand towards the box.

"Quatre was worried."

To Duo and Trowa that explained everything, but Trowa saw the scowl settle on Ben's pale face. He caught Duo's eye and nodded his head in the boy's direction. Duo followed with his eyes and nodded his agreement. The entire silent exchange went unnoticed by everyone except Heero, whose eyes kept widening through the whole thing.

Duo smirked at their soldierly friend before leading Ben outside. Trowa was left with six curious children and Heero. He decided to leave the box alone. Quatre knew Duo, and so would send supplies that the ex-thief could use. The children did not need that addition to their education.

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"Hey Ben, what's the matter?" Duo sat himself down in the front stoop, next to the too-skinny orphan. Ben wouldn't look at him, but stared strait ahead with a worried frown on his face.

"How are we going to pay this Quatre guy back? We don't have anything, so why does he keep helping us?"

Duo sighed, recognizing in Ben some of his own reactions in a similar situation. As much trouble as he had been to the church, he had always done what he thought was fair payback for everything that they gave him. After the first month, Father Maxwell had had a talk with him. Now it was time to see how much of that talk he could reproduce.

"Ben, Quatre is an unusual person. He doesn't think like most people, and certainly not about stuff like this. He's a ... war buddy of mine and Trowa's, so he's helping because he's our friend. And because it's the right thing to do."

Duo noticed that Ben relaxed when he mentioned Quatre's relationship with himself and Trowa, and was glad for it. He knew what Ben's next question would be, and wracked his brain for Father Maxwell's answer in the past.

"Duo... why are you and Trowa helping? We can't pay you back either."

Duo sighed and leaned back, looking at Ben's thin shoulders and big feet, once again reminded of his friend from long ago. Screw it, he thought, just tell the truth.

"You don't have to pay us back either. Actually, helping you guys is part of what I want to do to pay someone else back."

Now he had Ben's attention, and the boy finally turned to look at him. It looked like he wasn't moving until the whole sad story came out. Duo sighed again.

"Some of this stuff even Trowa doesn't know yet, so you can't repeat it for a while. Ok?"

"Sure Duo." Duo could see the excitement in Ben's gray eyes at the prospect of knowing a secret.

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