Unbroken 06/07 + Prologue & Epilogue
V of the "Chasing Down the Moon" Arc
Rating: pg13
Series: Gundam Wing
Genre: General/Romance
Pairings: 1+2+1
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Shounen Ai; Relena Bashing; Baiting of the Hee-chan; Duo-torture; Heero-torture; Humor; Language; Perverted YaoiFanGirls like Little Shrimp); Tiny Cross-over
By Moon Faery
Archived: (eventually at) Moon Faery's Garden ); Kiss of Death ); Lev's Lair )
Disclaimer: A statement created solely to save one's ass from becoming lawn for the proverbial legal mower. I do not own Gundam Wing. All materials are used without the permission of their various owners. However, this story line, characters and plot are MINE. Holds fic close to her.) Grrrr....
Author Notes: Forgive me for editing out a plot twist. I forgot it. (sweatdrop) So I made a quick plothole patch and covered it up. ;; I probably need to work on that...
***
The warm autumn night was clear, with a fading crescent moon already hovering over the horizon. The occasional small rodent scampered through the bushes in their nightly wanderings, in search of food. The wind blew gently through the leaves, which were just starting to turn that deep shade of copper the fall season is so famous for. Over head the stars were twinkling mischieviously, shining their faint light down on the quiet school grounds.
It was a perfect night for spying.
Safely hidden away behind a large brick wall, a small group of carefully selected watchers were gathered. One girl held a note pad, another a small pack of supplies. A tall, thin redhead was carefully coiling rope, and the lone boy of the bunch was carefully loading film into a camera. At the wall stood their proud leader, standing on her tip toes to peek over a wall.
Elisia snapped her fingers imperiously, and one of her lackeys immediately produced a small footstool. The brunette carefully stepped up, and was lifted up high enough that she no longer risked putting a crease in her shoes. Another snap lead to a pair of binoculars being handed up to her.
"What are they doing, General?" a particularly peppy blonde asked, bouncing up and down slightly in excitement while holding the rope.
"Quiet, Private, or you'll be stuck with Teacher Guard Duty," Elisia hissed, peering over the wall with her binoculars. The wall was convieniently placed so that it peered directly into the northern windows of the boy's dormatory. Even better, this particular portion of the wall offered a view into the shared dorm of Duo and Heero, and all the occasionally nekkid goodies within.
Life was good.
Through the window, Elisia could clearly see Heero and Duo at the desk supplied by the school, probably doing homework. Duo stepped out of view for a moment.
"General Elisia?"
"Duo's out of sight and Heero just slammed his head down onto the desk," Elisia reported, solely to get the rabble off her back long enough that she could see something good. "I think he's moaning."
The tall girl wiggled happily. "Ooh, I bet he's giving him a blow job under the desk," she sighed contentedly. "We DID get a camera under there, didn't we?"
The boy, Themes, nodded absently, still fiddling with his camera. As the only willing male aid of the Great Project, he had been the one to install most of the dorm survielence equipment. "Did it a couple of nights ago. They keeps some weird shit in their closet."
"Themes, language!" the blonde snapped, wacking the boy on the nose with a rolled up housewives magazine.
"Sorry."
"It's no matter. Good work Lieutenant Themes," their green-eyed leader complimented, deciding not to mention that when Duo had vanished it had been to the left, not down. Morale had to count for something, after all.
"Umm... Ma'am?" the girl with the rope pack, pushing her glasses up on her nose. In her right hand she geld a sheet of paper. "The deadline's Monday, right?" She frowned down at the paper severely.
Elisia took time out of her precious peeping (the boys weren't in view anymore anyways) to glare down at her. "Yes. Why?"
"Then why are the troops Edwards High scheduled to come in on Wednesday?"
"It's really simple Patrice," the blonde with the rope said happily. "We'll need a show of force to persuade them. Isn't that right, Elisia Ma'am?"
While Elisia was nodding absently (being too caught up watching Duo take off his shirt to really hear the cinversation) Patrice rubbed the back of her head in confusion. "Wouldn't it be better if they showed up on Monday then?"
"Of course," the blonde replied, again happily. She was starting to make the tall girl's teeth hurt.
"Then why aren't they?"
"... Oopsies?"
Patrice swiped some of her mousy brown hair back. "Yeah. 'Oopsies' about describes it."
"Miss Elisia?" Aldae, the tall one, tugged on their leader's arm. "What do you think?"
"Huh?" Elisia looked down at Aldae, eyes half focused. "What's the problem? Heero's out of the room and Duo's changing boxers!"
Before anyone could blink, Theme had scaled the wall and started snapping pictures.
"Aheh, yeah..." Aldae muttered, shrugging and ignoring the boy. "We need more troops. The girls from Edwards are going to be late."
Elisia smoothed back some of her black curls. "Recruit from this school then."
Behind Aldae, Patrice waved her hand. "We've already got all the girls that can make it," she reported casually, enjoying watching the popular girl's plans crumble. Revenge was sweet.
"Then get the boys! I don't care!" Elisia rolled her eyes heavenward. "Really, do I have to do all the work?"
"Heero's back!" Themes told him from his perch on the wall, snapping more pictures as he spoke. "He... He's in a TOWEL! He took a SHOWER again!"
The was the end of that conversation. Well, until Heero dried off and put on some clothes.
***
Sunday passed in a semi-pleasant mixture of shopping and plotting as Heero dragged Duo out to find appropriate riding habits for the two of them. When Duo argued that they would only be attending one class, which was hardly worth spending a large sum of money on [1] Heero just grabbed his hand and dragged him along anyway.
It probably wasn't the smartest thing he had ever done. Apparently the sight of him holding Duo's hand (death grip through it might have been) was too much, and even the few female occupants of the school that hadn't been tormenting them joined in the fun. By the time they escaped the campus and onto the streets they had somehow lost their shirts and had more lipstick prints on them than they could reach to wipe off. Duo's braid had once more been violated with flowers and barrets, while Heero had somehow managed to aquire writing on his back in permanent marker, reading, "Honk if I'm hot."
What was even more annoying was that people were actually honking.
After that the day imporved drastically. They had to buy tourist T shirts from a roadside vendor (after Duo had threatened more than one sales clerk about Earth's standard "no shoes, no shirt" policy), but collecting their riding habits went smoothly once they were fully dressed again. There was one close moment when they nearly ran into a group of students from their school, but their pursuers lacked the numbers to overwhelm them the same way they did on campus.
It was nearly pure luck that they arrived back at school during the dinner hour, and were able to retreat to their room reletively unscathed, where they spent the night planning their revenge for the indignities that had been heaped on them over the past two weeks. Neither boy bothered to mention that it was unlikely they would ever have a chance to put their plans into action, soothing to their male egos as the act of planning might have been.
Absolutely nothing else happened, much to the frustration of the girls who had planted yet another vid-only bug in their room while they were out. Themes wasn't paticularly pleased either, but he was more upset that all of his other cameras had been taken out than that Heero and Duo remained chaste. After all, nothing had been happening all weekend; why should things change now?
***
The fateful Monday morning of near-prophetic proportions arrived on schedule, as did the hordes of feminine fans at their dorm door. When the two boys stepped out on their way to breakfast, they found themselves faced with the at least a tenth of under-age population of the school, male AND female, although the male portion of the group looked much set-upon, and more than one was actually being held in a headlock against his attempts to escape.
Among the boys, Heero and Duo's fame had obviously never spread.
At the front of the crowd was Elisia, batting her green eyes innocently while she held her brother's neck to keep him from running. She was radiating all the emotional ice of an arctic winter, standing stiff and proud in her high heels and school uniform.
"Hello, boys," the leader of the pack purred, smiling predetorily.
Pure fear and instinct had made lesser men cower in the face of such odds, but Heero and Duo were stronger than that. In a show of defiance and bravery, they placed their backs to the door and held their ground, trying to pretend that didn't feel like whimpering.
Elisia smiled when they moved. "Excellent, dear Heero. Simply perfect. I see that Duo has informed you of our ultimatum?" Her brother - who was obviously at least a year younger than his sister up close - struggled, and she flexed her nails just enough that they pressed againt his jugular. "I assume that you have taken time to consider our offer and prepare the necessary materials for the exchange?"
"Why-" Duo's voice squeaked embarassingly. He cleared his throat, managing to make himself sound only a little less terrified. "Elisia, why'd you bring the guys? They don't have any part in this."
Someone in the back yelled, "That's GENERAL Elisia to you!"
Heero twitched.
Their blackmailer eyed the squirming sibling under her hand disdainfully and ignored the interuption. "I suppose you're correct." She locked eyes with Heero as though evaluating his intelligence. From her dissatisfied sniff, she must have found something lacking. "However, I would like to be certain that the show of force was appreciated before I allow them to go."
Duo had to fight back a twitch and a smart assed remark at her attitude.
It was Heero's turn to eye someone disdainfully. Unfortunately, it was Elisia's brother. "Consider it noted." Unspoken was his thought, 'If that's her troops, then Duo and I are in less trouble than we thought.'
"I'm glad we understand each other," she smirked, releasing her grip on her brother, who almost immediately ran down the hall and vanished. Heero's eyebrows went up as he watched the other male members of the group disappear with similar alaracrity. They were better trained than he had first assumed.
The black-haired girl watched calmly as the boys all left. Her loyal followers stayed, each one staring hungrily at Heero and Duo. Now that half of the group had left, there were only about a hundred people left, but that was more than enough as far as Heero and Duo were concerned. The girls crowded the hallway of the supposedly male-only dorm, blocking every concievable exit. Heero and Duo, intimidated by their united front, eased closer to the comforting solidity of the door.
"What do you want?" It was Heero who spoke again, being the only one of the pair who was mostly unencumbered by a near-overpowering fear of the oposite sex.
Elisia stood, calm and sure of her self, in the middle of her group, projecting an air similar to the one put out by a general just before the oposing army surenders. "I should think that's obvious by now." She held out her hand palm-up. "I believe that we had an agreement with," she smirked condescendingly, "little Duo?"
Duo swallowed the large lump of un-mashed potatoes that he imagined was lodged in his throat. "We didn't have a deal about anything," he managed to state, almost without stuttering. The sheer absurdity of their situation manged to ground him somehow. They were leaving that afternoon; why should he worry if Relena got her poor little-girl's heart broken by an imaginary relationship with Heero? He decided that he'd figure out who's imaginary relationship with Heero later, after they got out of this with the shreds of their dignity intact. The thought that he had a better chance with Heero than Relena did was soothing to Duo's ego, though, so he held onto it. So smoothly that the change was barely noticeable, Duo's eyes began to shade down the spectrum to a dark, almost blue shade of violet.
It didn't take as much courage as he thought it would to step away from the door, especially when he saw Heero adjust his position out of the corner of his eye. He would trust Heero to guard his back better than any door. "You blackmailed me, and I was stupid enough to actually think about going along with it!" Every word got easier to say, until at the end of the sentence, Duo was almost completely recovered from his state of terror.
Several of the girls in the front-line stepped back, suddenly doubting their place in Elisia's plans when the boys started to prove unwilling to play. The ones in back, unable to get a clear view of the procedings farther up, held their positions and prevented any attempted dessertions.
The group's leader arched a black eyebrow and eyed Duo as if he was somethings he had scraped off her shoe. Slowly, she nodded. "I'll grant you that, I did indded blackmail you, and you are indeed stupid. However, that doesn't change the way matters currently stand."
"No, it doesn't," Heero jumped in unexpectedly. "You can tell Relena what ever you want. It doesn't matter to us."
Elisia sniffed delicately, not bothing to look away from Duo, who she had long ago targeted as the one most suseptible to feminine intimation. Her demenor went from frozen all the way down to absolute-zero. "Is this true, little- Mr. Maxwell?"
Duo nodded firlmly. "Yeah, it is. Heero and I aren't together." Somehow, he resisted the urge to glance at Heero for confirmation; there was no need to let the enemy know that he was working on that.
Or at least he had been before the whole "protect Relena" thing side-tracked him.
"Such a pity," Elisia said, almost sounding sincere. "I'll give you until lunch to change your minds. Good-bye, boys." The crowd parted for her as she turned and left the builing regally. Several girls gave Heero and Duo longing looks before dutifully following their ring leader out of the boys dormatory.
"What IS it with that girl and dramatic exits?" Duo asked, rubbing his forehead.
Heero shrugged silently, then grabbed Duo's arm and hauled him back through their door, slamming and locking it behind them.
A long chestnut braid swung in a wide arc as Duo struggled to escape his roommate's grasp. "Heero?!"
"We're leaving through the window," Heero told him tersely.
Duo just laughed.
***
After safely making their way to the cafeteria and eating breakfast their first class was chemistry. Somehow their esteemed chemistry proffesor Mrs. Waldring hadn't firgured out that allowing the two of them work with anything remotely hazardous wasn't a very good idea. Even worse, she also didn't know that Duo had already obtained access to her locked cabinet of chemicals and substances that just weren't safe for most high school students.
Needless to say, Chemistry was much more exciting than usual for a few weeks.
Less than ten minutes after the students had been issued their supplies, Heero had already concoted various small flash explosives and Duo had somehow created a goopy yelloish-blue substance similar to a flour-water mixture. If flour and water had a tendancy to expand uncontrolably when exposed to air, that is. Since they shared a lab, it was fairly easy for them to trade experiments, Heero trying to make Duo's goo dangerous and Duo trying to make Heero's explosives more powerful.
Poor Mrs. Waldering didn't stand a chance. If it wasn't for the recently created Last Will and Testament carefully folded away in her solid (nearly bulletproof) desk, she would have abandonded the classroom and her students to the teenage maniacs several days ago. As it was, she just spent most of her time praying for a quick, painless death and a short, painless probate.
Fortunately, Heero and Duo were too good at what they did to take out a civilian teacher just because they knew more chemistry than she did.
The boys were currently being harrassed by their usual followers, who were crowding around their table, pretending to admire their work while trying for a decent grope. The V-shaped design of the table effectively foiled them, since it put the boys in a position to guard each other's highly valued backsides.
Directly opposite their table, Relena was chattering happily at her rapt lab partner, "General" Elisia. Occasionally one of her guesturing hands came close to knocking over one of their lab samples, but Elisia just smiled like a love-sick monkey and straightened out whatever mess had been made for her precious Miss Relena. More than once, Relena pointed at the Gundam Pilots table and made something that sounded suspiciously like a happy sigh.
Elisia just kept looking blissfully stupid. The "Relena talks, Elisia ogles" arangement seemed to be working out nicely.
Duo kept one eye on the pair so convientently located, fighting off a small frown. Leaning away from his side of the table, he elbowed Heero lightly in the side. When his partner raised an eyebrow at him, Duo jerked his chin at Relena and Eisia. "Lesbian, anyone?"
Heero glared first at them, then at Duo. "It's none of our business what Relena does with her sex life," he chided quietly, flicking Duo's nose sharply.
Wide violet eyes stared at him for a second before Duo started cracking up. His braid coming dangerously close to an unlit bunsen burner that Mrs. Waldering hadn't worked up the courage to confiscate yet. His laughter cut off with a yelp as someone took advantage of his exposed back to slip their hand into his back pocket and fondle the goods. His braid smacked Heero between the eyes and he whirled around, holding a test tube threateningly.
The blonde-haired, browned culprit pouted up at him innocently, batting her lashes winsomely. If her hand hadn't still been in his pocket he might even have thought she was innocent. With one last squeeze, the girl pulled her hand off his butt and ducked back to her own table, grinning manaically.
Natually, Duo looked up to see what the teacher - the lady who should have been preventing things like that - was going to do. Apparently, the answer was nothing. Mrs. Waldering had shoved on a World War style pith helmet and ducked under her desk, thus missing the entire degrading scene.
"Damned women," Duo growled in an unconcious immitation of Wufei, who he was starting to sympathize with. Before he could even grind out another anti-feminine curse, yet another person took advantage of his distraction to grope him. Duo's teeth clenched and his eyes narrowed. Once again he turned to face his assailant, ready to let them have it.
Heero looked up from measuring salt peter, failing to look even remotely innocent.
Duo's day was looking up.
***
Riding class passed easier than either boy had dared to hope. Mud only made one half-hearted attempt to dislodge his rider, which Duo easily managed to ignore. More than one jaw dropped when Mud went through almost a full ten minutes of class without stepping more than two hooves out of line.
Of course, nothing stays that easy for long.
First they were told to ride around the ring in the three basic gaits, one time around per gate. Then their stirrups were removed and they were told to do the same thing. Only a few student fell, but almost everyone was forced to hold on for dear life as they were bounced all over the saddle.
Then they were told to hold their arms out to the side and do it again. Needless to say, that wasn't the best idea ever presented to a class of mainly rich teenagers. Heero, Duo and three members of the gymnastics team were able to stay on, and Duo only by the grace of Mud's exceptionally smooth trot.
Mr. F, who had taken it upon himself to teach his class riding inspite of his own complete incompetency in the area, stopped the group in the middle of their balancing exercises and waved them to where he stood in the middle of the arena for an inspirational speech.
He should have stuck with history and math.
"Now, children, I understand that many of you know only the most basic of skills on horseback," he began gently, looking remarkably like Santa Clause in his bright red riding ensemble, decorated over the heart with St. Teresa's coat of arms. "This is really much simpler than you're all making it out to be. I'll demonstrate. Mr. Maxwell, if you'll dismount please?"
And that was Mr. F's big mistake of the day.
***
[1] ;; I.. Um, kind of forget whether I stuck with dollars or credits... Or if I bothered to mention money at all. (shrugs) I would have re-read the previous stories, but then I would have found something that could be better and revised them some more, and it would have been an extra month before you guys saw anything from me at all. Which would YOU prefer? (raises eyebrow) I thought so.
