The Urchin: Part Fourteen
By Banshi
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When the hap-hazard group reached Gibraltar's hangout on Brussels Street, they had to come up with a cover for such a large group being there. In the end, Trowa and Heero talked the five kids into pretending to play a game of street-hockey with them.
Duo and Wufei split up to case the house and figure out if what they needed would be here, or if the important stuff was elsewhere. Duo was hoping it was here, that would mean that they could end this crisis now instead of having to search for a partner.
Probably wishful thinking, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to go back to helping his home rather than adding to the colony's problems.
As he scanned the state-of-the-art security system and shielded architecture, Duo knew that nobody ever associated with OZ could be working with this guy. All the Ozzies that had been that stupid had been killed, either by the Gundams, or by the Treize Faction.
All of the potential obstacles to getting into the house, Duo recognized. During Duo's training, G had tried to figure ways to keep Duo out of his private quarters, and Duo had always managed to steal a pair of the old man's socks, just to piss him off. All of the things that G had come up with in that time were being used in the security of this house.
May as well have been neon letters saying "DUO! I'M IN HERE!" Which, considering it was G, was probably intentional.
"That settles that." Duo muttered to himself before heading back to the hockey game.
As his feet hit the asphalt, he caught the tennis ball they were using for a puck and started dribbling it like he was playing soccer.
"Well?" Heero and Wufei asked at the same time. Duo just kicked the ball in their general direction, then watched little Nicole scramble for it. She was thinner than he remembered being when he was here age…that would have been right before Father Maxwell took him in.
"G's here, and Gibraltar deserves to be publicly humiliated." The children stopped dead in their tracks at the ice in his voice, eyes widening at the stony look on his face. He couldn't summon a comforting demeanor, so he settled back into the old patterns.
Shinigami was now officially out of retirement, dusted off and ready for business. And he was scaring the children.
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Heero dragged them all to the WEI house, and put everyone into full research mode. Duo, Wufei and Trowa were all familiar with what was needed. Tonight Duo would infiltrate the house, with Trowa as back-up while Heero and Wufei provided distraction and quick escape. Either Duo would have G with him, or enough stolen info. to bring Gibraltar down. Hopefully both.
Trowa sighed silently as he watched Duo pour over blueprints and schematics. There would be no surprises from unknown corridors or new tricks in the standard security system. Between Heero's normal attention to detail, and Trowa's absolute fear that something would hurt Duo, everything got covered.
"Geeze guys, back off! I have done this before, you know. Master thief, remember?" Duo snapped at them after the fifteenth run-through of the plan. Trowa had the urge to chuckle, but kept it to himself, opting for a repentant look. Heero just grunted and left for the kitchen, where the children were having ice-cream and reading comics. Duo took both reactions a peace offerings and moved onto the next bit of information, leaving Trowa to his thoughts.
Five hours later, the four men put the children to bed, one of the nurses from Leslie's clinic camped out in the living room. Silently they gathered the supplies and headed back to Gibralter's house. Trowa continued to run through the plan in his mind, determined that it would be as fool-proof as he could make it before Duo set foot inside the large estate gates.
Even with the light-hearted banter that they had engaged in at the house, Duo had been a great deal less vocal than usual. They could all see the cold glint in his eyes, and the evil edge to his smile, and all grieved, having hoped that they would never see those characteristics again. Once again, Trowa glanced at his unknowing beloved. This chilling specter of Death was superimposed on the image of his dream Duo in Trowa's mind. It was silly to compare the two. One was a very real byproduct of Duo's long war with Fate, and the other was something Trowa's subconscious had created in response to his longing. He had hoped, since Duo was starting to trust him beyond a fellow soldier, that...
"Stop here." Duo's curt command stopped Trowa's thought. They were a block from the house, and the street was lined by other large estate-type houses with lighted walkways and big, lighted windows.
"Why?" Heero demanded, not liking any alteration to the plan without a good explanation.
"It'll be less obvious if Trowa and I get out here, and you guys circle a little, like you're trying to find an address. The camera configuration at the front gate should be trained on the driveway and at least three houses worth of street on either side. With all the lights on at that one just down the street from Martin, it'll be way easier to get in on that side, rather than strait from the back like we planned." It was said quickly, efficiently and obviously well thought-out, and Heero looked like he was in a daze.
"Alright." came the bodyguard's reply. Heero probably hadn't been able to think of any reason why he shouldn't do what Duo asked. Trowa heard Wufei chuckle softly. The sound of Duo's door opening pulled Trowa's attention back to him.
"Coming Tro?" The question was posed in a teasing, utterly light voice, exactly as he would expect a Duo-innuendo to be delivered. Looking into those shadowed eyes however, he knew that the other man was deadly serious. Trowa would do this, and something would change, he would have passed a test of some sort. He had no idea what kind of test, but he knew it had something to do with what he would find if they got G and Duo's files back.
"Of course. Can't let you have all the fun and blackmail material, now can I?" He knew that the answer was totally unlike him, and he felt his merriment reach his face, his eyes, instinctively he filled the void that Duo's focus had left behind. He heard Duo gasp as they looked at each other, Heero and Wufei were staring at them from the front seat, and Trowa couldn't bring himself to care.
The smile blossoming on Duo's face was worth the questions he would have to answer later.
"A joke! He made a funny!" Duo turned and beamed at their fellow burglars before giving Trowa one last look at that smile before he was hauled out of the car. "Come on. we have to get a move on if we wanna get this done before my sense of humor dies an ugly death again."
Trowa continued to smile to himself, his hand still clutched by Duo's, as he was lead away into the maze of houses and fences and beams of light coming from picture windows. And somehow, the idea that they were about to commit a petty crime made it all that much more romantic.
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continue in part fifteen