Zodiac, Full Circle
Aquarius, part one

AN: For all relevant information about this fanfic, read the first bit of the prologue.

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"Why me?" Duo muttered to himself, surveying the chocolate stains in his hair aided by the spaceport's restroom mirror. His braid was undone, and he was currently preoccupied using moistened paper towels from the broken and shattered dispenser - a state obtained when it tried to deny a frustrated former gundam pilot its contents - to remove the sticky substance from the strains of his exuberant mane. While some progress was made, it more often than not smudged the stains out further. Carefully soaking a few more paper towels under the bathroom spring, Duo continued the ad-hoc clean-up. Amidst it all, his mind started wandering, thinking how it had been only a dozen hours since he had been roused from his sleep by the crisis beeper Lady Une had given him months ago. The adrenaline rush and later all the cups of coffee he had poured down his throat had kept him going, but he still felt dead tired. And now he found himself going straight back where he came from; back to the L2 cluster. Needless to say, Duo was a tad frustrated.

Howard hadn't been able to tell much, partly because of his shoddy memory, partly because of the high level of secrecy that always strangled the development environment in the mountain lab, and partly because he simply didn't know. "Ziegler kept to himself most of the time," he had said, "especially towards the end. None of us really knew what he was doing in the last three years. When the Alliance finally pulled the plug in '78, Ziegler was the only one still working at the lab. The rest of us had moved to the factory." Howard had continued giving as many details as he could - which weren't many, nor very useful. Lady Une had already asked him what he knew of the twelve tokens, and Howard gladly repeated what little he knew. "Ziegler was very proud of that key. Called it his 'major work of small-scale engineering'. From what Lady Une told me, his bragging might be justified. He didn't install it until after most of us had moved though, so none of us ever had the chance to study it in detail. Anyway, the last time I saw the key, there were only three pieces of it left. He gave me one, told me to keep it as a memento, and keep it safe until he arranged for a reunion. Out of respect for the man, I accepted. A few days later, I ran into some trouble with the Alliance brass, and left for L2. Professor G had offered me a job when he and the other scientists left the research lab in '75 following arguments with Ziegler and the Yuy assassination. I figured it was time to accept." Howard had chuckled a bit after that, momentarily shooting a glance at Duo, and quickly sweeping the rest of the table. "I guess I've always been drawn to oddballs, like minds and all."

Duo splashed some water in his face in an effort to combat drowsiness. Temporarily successful, he returned to cleaning his hair and his recollections of what little Howard had to say. The old engineer had seen Ziegler hand another piece to one of their veteran test pilots, overhearing a conversation similar to what he and Ziegler had had minutes earlier. The last piece had remained with Ziegler, for all Howard knew. Quatre had been quick to brighten up at the news, assuming Howard still had his piece of the Zodiac key. Unfortunately, he didn't. During the evacuation of the Peacemillion, it had been left in his quarters. For this exact reason, Duo was, along with Heero, heading home to the L2 cluster. The colonies of L2 were renown for their scavenger-like culture, and the recycling and dismantling of the Peacemillion and Libra wreckage had fallen to them quite easily. While L3 had also made a bid for the job, L2's location - hidden behind the moon - made the sale much easier to the Earth delegations, as the moon would take the brunt of impact should the wreckage drift, unlikely as that might be. For the other colonies, the allocation of the job to L2 was seen as a fair 'aid package'. L2 was easily - as it had always been - the most run-down and impoverished colony cluster.

As for the rest of the team, Quatre and Trowa were heading for L3, tracing the last known steps of Ziegler. Alliance travel records from the restriction days marked him going to L3, but no papers on him leaving there was to be found. Wufei and Sally were trying to find the test pilot given the other token, and Lady Une had returned to digging in old records, trying to find clues to the whereabouts of the remaining nine key pieces. Personnel records had become her main angle of attack following Howard's information. Apparently, Ziegler had been careful to seek out people who would hold on to the little part-key amulet, but who didn't care enough to seek out the other pieces.

The restroom door swung open as Heero entered, two slips of paper in hand. Duo shook his hands dry, and threw the rest of the wet paper towels away. The stains were more or less gone, but in return his hair was anything but dry. Trained fingers quickly braided it, attaching an elastic band at the end. "I take it you got the tickets?"

Heero nodded. "Our shuttle leaves in ten minutes. Get moving." He turned on his heel, and stepped out. Duo scooped up his little traveling bag, consisting of assorted items he had tossed in there during his rapid departure nary half a day before, and walked after Heero. The former Wing pilot set a brisk pace for the shuttle gateway, and at times Duo found himself nearly running to keep up, both of them darting through the crowded spaceport in the chase. Duo's slight inability to keep up could have been related to how his mind raced, from thinking of how he was to trick Heero to give him the window seat, to frustration that his hair was partly soaked, even if free from chocolate stains, train of thought ending with a sigh considering how simple targets most of the airport crowd would have been had he still been a pickpocket. Preoccupied, he didn't notice Heero had abruptly stopped fast enough, running straight into him, causing both to lose their footing, and falling. Faced yet again by Heero's hard yet familiar glare, Duo flashed his most disarming grin, evading trouble yet again. Back on their feet, and meager belongings picked up, Heero grabbed Duo's wrist, dragging him the few steps left to their flight's gateway. The flight attendant was just about to close the gateway door, taken a bit by surprise by the late disheveled arrivals, but was able to give a friendly service smile when Heero handed her the tickets, motioning them to get aboard.

The shuttle was nearly empty. This was not a complete surprise, given that L2 was neither a prime tourist nor business location, and the people there usually weren't well enough off to afford frequent trips through space. When they did, it was usually for a vacation in one of the many resorts at the moon; a quick reprieve to temporarily forget the hardships of their everyday lives.

An elderly gentleman was softly snoring in one of the front row seats at the right side, sound somewhat muffled by the brown hat resting over his face. A few rows back, on the left side, a toddler and her mother were arguing over issues such as sitting still, being quiet and attaching the safety strap as the flight attendant instructed, something the little girl was far from willing to do. She was much too busy gawking to the seats further back on the right side, where a couple in their mid-twenties were significantly preoccupied with one another, engaged in a serious state of lip-lock. The little veil of transparent white strapped on the blonde lady's head and the gentleman's clip-on tie attested to their errand. Duo assumed they were heading for the Luna resorts for a honeymoon, only using L2 as a transit point. Given the cheap tickets to L2, it wasn't unheard of to do this, even though most people preferred direct flights, not to mention staying away from L2 altogether.

Finding their left side seats, conveniently distant from the remaining passengers, Duo gave Heero his bag. "Could you put this up in the compartment? Thanks."

Unfazed, Heero complied out of courtesy. However, Duo only asked so he could steal the window seat while Heero was busy - which he did. Not that Heero noticed, or cared. His mind was already lost in the mission; the glazed look gave that away much too easily.

At the very front of the cabin, stuck between the two rows of doubled seats, one of the flight attendants gave quick last-minute instructions on how the passengers were to strap themselves in. Obviously, she did it strictly out of protocol, as all the seven passengers, including the sleeping senior citizen and the hyperactive girl, were already secured in their seats long before her speech was even halfway through. Moments later, she was gone, and the shuttle began moving, engines powering up. The sleek machine taxed slowly out to the end of the launchway, lined itself up to face the sharply inclining black spike ahead; the veritable springboard to the heavens. As the engines howled to their greatest extent and the shuttle raced forward toward the spike, the little girl laughed with glee, and the senior citizen up front was roused from his slumber, though he remained untroubled. If anything, it showed the man was an experienced traveler, knowing that the shudders of the craft was nothing to worry about, nor the sudden tilt the shuttle got upon reaching the spike, pushing its passengers far into the soft seats as the nose of the craft pointed steadily more upwards. The honeymoon couple however, were evidently not frequent fliers, as the young lady's solid grips, one hand clasped around the arm of the chair, the other around the hand of her husband. Of course, the man returned the grip as panicky as he received it, not too fearless of the unfamiliar method of travel himself.

Heero and Duo barely noticed the take-off. Duo made himself a challenge by watching out the tiny window, trying to see as much of the cloudscape quickly drifting by as he could without getting nauseous. Heero glared into the seat before him, eyes dulled over by his thoughts, already projecting possible means of acquiring their objective; the little amulet Howard had abandoned. The clouds and blue outside was replaced by ever more black, and Duo brought his attention away from the window again, satisfied he had not needed the vomit bags despite the fact his head was spinning ever so slightly. He unbuckled the safety straps with almost no problems whatsoever, merely struggling to identify the right switch of the four he thought he saw spinning before his eyes.

"So... What's the plan, Heero?"

Heero kept glaring into the back of the seat before him. "When we get to L2, we go to the closest government office, and ask for entry in the item recovery program."

For a moment, Duo wondered if the dizziness caused his ears, alternately his brain, to malfunction, as what Heero said didn't make much sense. "The what program?"

"Item recovery program." This time, Heero turned to give Duo a glare. "I'm surprised you don't know about it. You're the L2 junk peddler, after all."

Duo's nostrils flared. "Hey, I run a salvage yard, thank you very much. One man's junk is another man's treasure, restoration project or spare part. I can take a lot of abuse, but mock my work and I'll hit you, pal." To further mark his point, he raised a fist.

"Okay," Heero said in his most apologetic tone of voice - which was far from convincing, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. It's just that nearly every scr-," he paused before Duo's eyes hardened further, "-salvage yard on L2 is involved on the disassembly of the Peacemillion/Libra wreckage. I figured your little business venture was-"

Duo opened his fist, open palm waving the thought off. "Yeah, well... See, the L2 provincial government set down strict guidelines for how the work contracts were to be distributed. Hilde and I were not exactly in their proper age group. 'Annoying little brats', I think were the words they used. Regardless, we don't have any zero-g demolition equipment, so we couldn't help dismantle the thing if we wanted to. Couldn't exactly list Deathscythe Hell as the right tool for the job either." Duo grinned at the thought. "Too much publicity, you know. And now it's gone, anyway." A sigh of remembrance later, Duo continued. "Anyway, since almost every other salvage yard got contracts on the Peacemillion/Libra project, there's been plenty of little jobs left to keep Hilde and me afloat. It worked out. Things have a strange way of doing that, don't they?"

Heero merely gave a slight huff at the idea. After waiting a moment to see if Duo had more to say, he could read the repeat question in Duo's eyes. "When the contract for scrapping the Peacemillion/Libra wreckage was handed to L2, they were also instructed to salvage any personal belongings from the two ships and identify them, if possible. That is what the item recovery program is about. If you left anything aboard either vessel, and want it back, you can apply for it through the program."

Duo grinned. "Well, that ought to make this assignment a breeze. I mean, we just go there, ask to take a look at Howard's belongings, and that's it."

"It's not that simple, Duo. First, we don't know if they have catalogued all items. We don't know if Howard's quarters were left undamaged, or marked as Howard's quarters in the first place."

"Well, we'll know that soon enough. Besides, Howard's little private section was close to the bridge, wasn't it? It should be undamaged from both the collision and the engine blast."

No answer. Heero resumed his study of the seat before him.

"Anyway, we'll drop by my salvage yard first, okay? I need to take a shower." Duo tugged on a few loose strands in his braid, which was casually slung over his right shoulder. "Still feels like there's some of that damn chocolate left, and besides, I owe Hilde an explanation for vanishing so suddenly last night. Barely had time to scribble a note with the worlds 'Emergency, back soon' before I made a run for the shuttle." He grinned, looking briefly at the cabin ceiling. "Oh, she'll be so pissed by now." With a flash, he faced Heero again, gently punching the stoic in the shoulder to gain his attention. Success. "Hey, do me a favor. You walk in first, okay? That way, I might avoid some of the loose objects she'll chuck at me."

Heero raised an eyebrow, but chose not to question the latter of Duo's statements, assuming it a joke. "Duo, we don't have time for that. We have to get the amulet immediately. We can't-"

"Oh, don't give me that crap," Duo interrupted. "That little trinket has been waiting for someone to retrieve it for over a year. What's a few more hours going to do? Absolutely nothing, I tell you." With significant effort, he suppressed a yawn, far from unnoticed by his partner.

"Duo, get some sleep. It'll be hours before we reach the L2 docking point anyway."

Duo yawned again, not bothering to hide it this time. "Yeah, I guess the coffee is wearing off. Look, I still want to drop by-"

"Fine," Heero grumbled. "We make a quick stop there, you take a shower, and then we head for the closest L2 government office. Deal?"

Duo smiled, surprised at the easy victory. "Deal. Thanks, pal." And with that, he rolled over towards the window, closed his eyes and produced a snore rivaling that of the elderly gentleman at the very front of the shuttle.

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The docking procedure had been completely uneventful, short of the antics the little girl came up with on the arrival, stealing the elderly man's walking cane and using it to trip the honeymooners. As Heero and Duo left the space dock, they could still hear the toddler's mother give off tirades of disciplination. The streets of the L2 colony were not particularly crowded, despite how the artificial lighting indicated it was mid-day. If anything, it furthered the incorrect piece of space lore that most business on L2 was done at night, beyond the watchful eyes of any authorities, legit or otherwise. They had not bothered with getting a cab, as nearly all places within a colony were within walking distance, and they were not bringing heavy luggage. Though Heero had suggested they'd gotten to the salvage yard faster by car, Duo had simply shaken his head, explaining that he knew enough shortcuts through places where cars couldn't go to make the extra expense futile. As they walked, a question unanswered earlier came back to Heero. Even though reluctant to engage in small-talk - especially about something that sounded so trivial - he asked.

"Is something wrong between you and Hilde?"

At first taken a bit aback by the question, Duo shrugged. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

"You said you were expecting her to assault you the minute you got home."

Duo grinned. "Oh, that. Well, it's just that Hilde is like me; she doesn't like to be cut out of the loop when there's adventure and excitement involved. I mean, she knows what I meant when I wrote the note. She'll just be angry I didn't wake her up to tell her myself. Truth be told, I didn't even think about it. Waking her up in the middle of the night has never been a good idea in the past - she has a nasty right-hand swing when she's still morning grumpy." He snickered a bit. "Oh, and don't tell her I said that. No need to make the poor gal more upset than she already is." Duo saw no apparent sign of any reaction whatsoever in Heero's face - not that he had expected to; reading the stoneface mask had become somewhat of a challenge in and of itself over the years, and a strangely welcome one.

After getting the weakest of grunts of confirmation, Duo continued.

"Say, did you ever meet Hilde, anyway? I mean, you never came to visit us at L2, not in the interim year before Mariemeia nor in the last five months."

Barely noticeable, Heero gritted his teeth. "I saw Hilde once, briefly. That was in the sickbay of the Peacemillion, when she had come with the information from Libra. I wanted to see the courier before I ran out on a note saying Relena was over there, wanted to see her eyes, search for any signs of lies or deception. Never got the chance, as Hilde was near comatose, with wires, tubes and bandages everywhere, and-" He stopped, noticing how the grin had vanished from Duo's face. "Sorry. Shouldn't have brought that up."

Duo sighed, gave a flash half-smile. "Nah, it's okay. I asked, didn't I?"

Heero nodded, but said nothing more. If nothing else, he hoped to avoid having to come up with an answer to the second, merely implied, question. The remainder of their stroll was taken in silence, at a quickened pace, through all the narrow passageways and dark alleys Duo led them through. Soon enough, they reached the salvage yard. Piles of metal, plastics and assorted mystery items were all around in the fenced-in lot, making the small building at the center look like some industrial-styled mountain valley cottage. Both the fence and the cottage could do with a paint job, Heero noted.

"Well, here we are," Duo stated. "It's not much, but it's home." Duo slowed down quite a bit on the last few steps up the walkway. Out of the corner of his eye, Heero could have sworn he saw movement by one of the windows, if for but a second. Duo didn't appear to notice, but even so, he reached out an arm to block Heero, pushing him off to the left side of the walkway, side-stepping the 'welcome' mat by the door himself. Still holding Heero back, he carefully opened the door. "Stay still," Duo grinned. He put his foot in the narrow opening of the door, nudging it open, and not before had he done so, a big, brown sofa cushion came flying out through the door. "Hi, Hilde. Sorry I didn't call or anything, but-"

Before he got a chance to finish, the front of his shirt and jacket was in a grip of steel, pulling him inside the house, face to face with an angry Hilde. "You big jerk! Why don't you ever bother to tell me when you're going someplace? You know I hate finding out by reading your little notes!"

Duo nearly laughed, knowing it was all an act. Well, mostly an act. "I'm sorry, okay? It's just that I remember last time I woke you up in the middle of the night. My left eye still hurts." The impish grin widened, waiting for the inevitable rebuttal.

"You woke me up with a bucket of water that time - I was entitled to-"

"Oh, come on. It was just a small glass, not a bucket."

"It was a big glass, and you had added some crushed ice, I'm sure of it! You never-" She stopped, suddenly noticing they weren't alone. In the door frame stood Heero, holding the brown sofa cushion.

"I think you dropped this..."

The matter-of-fact tone and completely statue-like face of Heero made it impossible for neither Hilde nor Duo to keep from laughing, their standard argument forgotten, for now.

"Sorry, Heero - see, Hilde and I like to argue; we do this all the time. Gives us something to do other than sort scrap, you know. Keeps us sharp-witted." Heero appeared unconvinced. "Anyway, Hilde, this is Heero, Heero, this is Hilde."

Hilde punched Duo in the shoulder to end their argument, and extended a hand to Heero. "Hilde Schbeiker."

Heero accepted the hand, two quick, firm shakes. "Heero Yuy."

Duo closed the door, and put an arm around each of the two greeters. "Okay, so we're all friends now. Why don't you two talk or something while I get a shower? I really need to get rid of the chocolate residue." He tugged on his hair again, spun on his heel and fled to the back of the building.

"Chocolate... No, forget I ever asked," Hilde started, shaking her head. "So, you are Heero Yuy. Duo has told me quite a bit about you over the years. Don't worry, most of it was good stuff. Duo doesn't badmouth people much. Guess that's a side-effect of never lying; being very careful of what you say."

Heero simply nodded, as social as ever.

"Why don't we sit down?" Hilde offered, motioning to the small sofa group to which the brown cushion Heero still carried under one arm belonged. Heero put the cushion back into place, and sat down, slowly taking in his surroundings. The small living room was a weird sight; The far side from the door was really a kitchen corner, bench and cupboards acting as a separator between the two sections. Potted plants, bookshelves, posters, paintings and armature covered each wall, making it difficult to determine if there was paint or wallpaper on the walls behind, much less the color of the same. Each item appeared to contrast the one next to it, there was no unity of style whatsoever. In short, the inside of the house matched the yard, even though the yard had at least grouped the bits and pieces in piles. Between an undergrowth of potted cactuses, poinsettias and geraniums, tulips, roses and dandelions in vases amidst ferns stuck just about anywhere, was a small fish tank filled with so many castles, plants, rocks and other decorative artifacts there was hardly room for the few fish hiding from the jungle outside within the safe walls of the largest castle or the oversized repeatedly opening and closing treasure chest at the right side, which occasionally let fresh oxygen into the water. On the walls, hidden between archaic posters easily centuries old, brass lamps ornamented and shaped in ways that could easily be mistaken for lewd, framed drawings that looked as if a two-year-old had run amok with crayons, small pictures of Deathscythe and the yard, below the fake Van Gogh self-portrait and above the dogs playing poker, was a big picture taken at the end of the first war; a picture of all the five pilots standing in front of their battered gundams - though you could only see the feet of the giant machines. The furniture was just as chaotic as the decorations. In short, the room could be described as an interior decorator's personal nightmare - or perhaps dream assignment to fix.

Apparently, he had let his guard down enough to show a vague expression of surprise during his survey, as Hilde read the very question on his mind. She sat down in a worn out black leather chair, one hand gently caressing the flaking hide on the arm of the chair. She smiled. "Yeah, it's a mess. We know. We like it like this." Heero raised a brow, inquisitive. Hilde continued her explanation. "We can never agree on what to put where, and what to bring in, anyway. In the end, we reached a compromise. Every time I found something I wanted in, Duo could put something of his choice next to it, without me protesting, and the other way around. The result is what you see around you. I figure we have to start fresh again soon."

The last sentence caught Heero's attention. "Again?"

Hilde nodded. "Yeah - we've decorated the living room three times this way already. When it overflows, we clear most of it out. Some things stay, of course, but most things end up out in the yard, or in one of the storage closets. All in all, it gives the room character." She smiled. "I guess it scares off visitors, though. It's just... too much sometimes. You should have seen Quatre's expression the first time he visited. He was politeness personified, of course, but the size of his eyes when he entered this room..." She laughed. "Oh, it was priceless. That was right before the first time we decided to start fresh. We had this huge, stuffed moose head stuck on the wall behind you. Moth-eaten, dusty old thing. Don't ask me where Duo managed to find it. Quatre was sitting just about where you're sitting when one of the antlers fell off, barely missing blondie's head. Poor guy nearly jumped two feet in the air. Next time he stopped by, he made a point in sitting in this chair, away from the walls. They say walls have ears, but here at the salvage yard, the walls come after you if you're not careful." She smiled, noting Heero tried his best to look over his shoulder without her noticing, just to make sure no loose artifacts was threatening him.

"Does Quatre visit you often?"

She shrugged. "Not really. He's been here a few times, mostly combined with business trips. Of all of you pilots, he's the one I've seen most often, though. That tall guy... Trowa...? stopped by when the circus toured L2 last fall. The uptight one with the tight ponytail visited a few months ago. Said he wanted to speak to Duo on matters relating to a Preventer case here at the L2 cluster. I think it was all smoke and mirrors - he just wanted someone to talk to, and Duo is known for being chatty."

Heero accepted the information, one curt nod in reply.

"How come you never visited us before, Heero? Duo talks more about you than any of the others. I kinda got the impression you two were good friends."

Heero closed his eyes for but a second, and smirked slightly. "Friends... Yeah, I guess we are friends."

Silence.

Slightly impatient, Hilde angled for an answer. "So? How come you haven't visited us?"

Heero shrugged. "I don't know. Never really crossed my mind, I guess."

Though convinced that was less than the whole truth, Hilde chose not to come off as pushy, dropping the issue. From the other end of the house, the sound of running water could be heard. They looked at each other, both smiling, albeit Heero's was very reserved compared to Hilde's. "Sounds like it might still be a while before Duo is ready to leave. Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, water...?"

Heero shook his head. "No thanks."

"Are you sure?" she asked, already out of her chair. "It's no bother, really. I was planning to get something for myself, anyway."

"No thanks, I really don't need-" Heero stopped short, noticing an old document lying on the black-and-white checkered wooden table of the bizarre living room, coffee stain circles showing how someone - probably Duo - had used it for a makeshift coaster. Of course, it was the letterhead that caught Heero's attention, denoting the paper as a letter sent by the L2 provincial government. He picked it up, but other than the letterhead, the typing had become illegible through all the stains and folds. "What's this?" he asked, handing the soaked letter to Hilde.

Hilde accepted it, giving up on reading beyond the letterhead nearly as quickly as Heero. "Oh, this is probably just one that sneaked out from the paperwork stacks. We get a bunch of letters associated with business practices, both general and scrap salvage related stuff. I try to keep it all organized and away from Duo. He likes to show his disrespect for all forms of authority any way he can, I'm sure you've noticed that."

Heero smirked again, nodding. "Do you get many such letters?"

She shrugged. "We get enough. Most don't really concern us, like all the ones we got last year relating to the dismantling and recycling the huge mess of space debris you boys made during the fighting."

"The wreckage of Peacemillion and Libra?"

Hilde nodded. "That, and a bunch of drifting, ruined mobile suits and who knows what else. Guess the local government has all the salvage yards on one big mailing list, since we get all this extra paperwork thrown at us. We get some of the small-stuff business, but the big contracts won't go to this little yard. Not that it matters, Duo and I get by."

"He told me as much earlier." He paused, for but a second hesitating if he wanted to involve Hilde in his and Duo's assignment, even if remotely. "Can I take a look at those documents - the ones relating to the Peacemillion salvage job?"

Again, she shrugged. "Yeah, I guess... Wait here, I'll go get them."

With that, she walked through the little kitchen corner of the living room and out to the hallway at the back of the house. Heero sat there in silence, for the first time noticing a faint, sweet smell. It took him a while to notice the small incense bowl parked on top of an old piece of plastic garden furniture, cut around the edges to make the table resembling a pedestal. It had obviously been a while since it was last used, but the smell lingered in the closed space. He could hear the shower turning off, leaving the sole background sound to be the distant shuffling of papers. A few minutes later, Hilde returned, a handful of documents in her hands.

"Here. I think I got most of them. What do you need them for, anyway?"

Heero accepted the stack of papers. He sensed she had already figured the answer, but decided against candor. "Just wanted to read up on it. Wanted to see how the L2 government handled the little bit of charity business they got."

Hilde had crossed her arms, looking anything but convinced. Still, she didn't want to make a fuss about it. She knew well enough that whatever the two boys were up to, she would probably never find out. "Look... Heero, I'm not dumb. I don't know how much you know about me - I don't think you know anything at all about me, since you don't even speak to your friends - but I'm not going to buy that poor excuse. This has something to do with the beeper call Duo got last night, that I'm sure of." Heero was about to cut in, mouth already open, but Hilde continued. "I can understand that you don't want to involve me, and I'm sure Duo wouldn't want to either. That's fine, I can live with that. You don't trust me enough yet, and Duo is just afraid I'll get hurt again like I did when I brought you guys the information on Libra. I keep telling him it's unjustified, but when he switches to protective mode..."

She shrugged, sighing. "Heero, I just have one more thing to say - make sure Duo is safe, okay? Une wouldn't page the both of you for some little thing, she has her own agents for that. As much as I'd like to stop Duo from heading into danger again - not that I think I could, even if I tried - I don't want to, not this time. For the last few months, Duo has been really depressed. Maybe out of boredom, I don't know - his whole life has been a rollercoaster, and I'm not sure he's able to adjust to a quiet life and a day job, as much as he tries to. I haven't seen him this fired up about anything for quite a while, and I wouldn't want to take that away from him. Just - just make sure he doesn't get hurt, okay?"

Ever so slowly, Heero took in her words, at last nodding, accepting this additional mission. Not that he had planned to deliberately get Duo hurt, anyway. Not really, unless the braided menace pulled some nasty practical joke on him - something he deemed not entirely unlikely, judging from past experiences.

With a thin smile, Hilde gave a nod in reply and stepped into the kitchen corner, intent on getting the quarrelsome, old coffee-maker working. As he skimmed through document after document, Heero absentmindedly registered the sounds of success; a hissing heating element, trickles of warm water droplets, clinks as cups were taken from the cupboard. By the time Hilde returned to the leather chair with her coffee cup, Heero was lost in one of the few documents dealing with the item recovery program, studying it very closely. Hilde took a sip of coffee, smiling softly, amused by Heero's far gone expression.

"I guess you found something interesting?"

Abruptly returned from whatever far place his mind was at, Heero looked up from the paper, able to form a clever "Huh?"

She snickered. "I said, I assume you found something of interest in the paper pile? You were looking completely lost there."

"I found something that might be useful, that's all."

She nodded. "Ah-huh."

A bit surprised Hilde didn't push for more information, and slightly unnerved by the silence, Heero struggled trying to find a topic for small-talk; a concept he was most uncomfortable with. He tended to listen to conversations, not start them or speak himself, after all. "How come you have all these papers stored away, anyway? If they don't have anything to do with the operations of the yard, why keep them?"

Hilde grinned, putting her coffee cup down at the checkered table. "Well, isn't it obvious? The sign of a good salvage yard is that nothing is thrown away, if it can have value. Paper can be recycled. Documents can have historical value." She giggled briefly. "If all else fails, they can apparently serve as coasters."

Replying with a half-smile, Heero was about to read the document in his hands yet again when Duo returned from the back of the house, dressed all in black, except the big, white terry cloth towel he had wrapped around his hair and the brown-handled brush sticking out from his side pocket. As he passed the kitchen corner, he grabbed one of the small wooden chairs there and made a beeline for Hilde's leather chair. He handed her the brush, adopting his most angelic face and pleading eyes. "Could you brush my hair?"

"I'm not your servant, Duo."

With folded hands, Duo fluttered his eyes acting much too innocent. "Pleeeease."

Hilde smirked, sighed, knowing all too well Duo would push until he got want he wanted. She accepted the brush, and Duo swiveled the small chair around, straddling it to face Heero, if at a slight angle, not wanting to block the visual line between the other two - that would have been impolite, even if the two weren't speaking. He folded his arms around the back of the chair, threw the soft, white towel aside and shook the mass of moist chestnut in a futile attempt to make the brushing easier - both for Hilde and himself. To his credit, he barely winced at the first few hard tugs of the hairbrush, tangled mess of wet strands resisting the tiny teeth at every inch.

Heero's eyes wandered between the scene before him and the piece of paper in his hands. He frowned, thoughts he had struggled with for months returning, thoughts of loneliness, solitude - the worst kind; self-imposed.

Duo brought him out of it. "So... What's the paper you're holding?"

Heero took a moment to gather his thoughts, opened his mouth to reply, but stopped, looking at Hilde.

Gritted teeth resisting another hard pull of the brush, Duo rolled his eyes. "Sheesh. You can trust Hilde, okay? I mean, she's a pain sometimes, but-"

That earned him a smack of the brush square on the head.

"Ow!", he cried, one hand rubbing the site of impact. "I was only joking, you know that!"

"Oh, do I?" she answered with a mildly wicked smile, starting to brush the tangled brown mass again, slightly more roughly than before.

"Hey, hey, hey - easy on the hair, okay?"

She stopped. "Oh, dissatisfied with my services now, are you? Maybe you ought to do it yourself, then - or get your friend over there to help you."

Duo couldn't help but laugh a little. "You mean Heero?" He grinned widely, first at Hilde - who returned the grin, then at Heero's monotonous face.

"I can handle a brush, Duo."

"Oh, really? Your hair says otherwise, pal."

Suddenly remarkably self-conscious, Heero let one hand sift through his unruly bangs, dulled glare not wavering from Duo. "You mean you don't trust me?"

"Look - Heero, I'd trust you with my life. Now, my hair... That's a whole different matter. You've threatened to chop it off nearly as many times as Wufei." Duo was still smiling, but to Heero, this was no joke.

Eyes downcast, the reply came slowly. "I'm... sorry."

Smile to surprise. "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry, okay? I know I shouldn't have said that about your precious braid - but it was usually uttered following one of your annoying pranks. You didn't exactly go out of your way to make life easy for us, Duo."

"Aw, come on. You just don't have a sense of humor, admit it."

Again, Duo earned a smack with the hairbrush. "Behave, Duo."

Rubbing the new sore spot, he shot an annoyed glare at Hilde. "Sheesh. Yes, mom."

Another smack, albeit weaker.

With a swift swing, Duo took the brush back. "Would you stop that?"

Hilde just smiled back at him. Duo looked over to Heero, a bit surprised to see the renown stoic smirking. In such company, Duo couldn't really keep his anger - not that he did so usually, anyway. Pent-up emotions is the easiest way to eventually explode; better to vent every now and then.

He began brushing the remaining tangles out. "Okay, apology accepted. Now, what's that paper?"

"This is a document relating to the item recovery program. Evidently, there is a reason why this was never really disclosed to the public. The local government installed an inheritance clause."

"Inheritance clause?"

"Yes. The dismantling program was scheduled to take five years. If no claim has been made to the personal belongings two years after that deadline, the belongings become the property of the government."

Duo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that sounds like the L2 government, all right. If there's a chance to steal something legally, go for it. No wonder they're keeping the program all under wraps. I'd be surprised if even one former crew member of either ship have actually retrieved anything from it."

"At least one have."

"Huh?"

"I have."

"You left something of value aboard Peacemillion?"

"Back then, I didn't val-" Heero stopped himself, not wanting to answer more than was asked. "Yes. And I applied to retrieve it. They were not too happy about it. I didn't understand why back then, but now I do."

Though dying of curiosity to find out what Heero had left behind - and later bothered to get back - Duo let the matter drop. It was obvious to him Heero didn't want to discuss it, so it would have to wait for another day. Just another mystery added to the walking enigma; a puzzle he was determined to eventually solve.

Done brushing, Duo ran his fingers through the loosened strands, and quickly wove it back into his trademark braid, securing it with an elastic at the end. "Okay, done. Want to get going, Heero?"

Heero nodded, put the document back among the other papers and got to his feet. A few quick strides later, holding the door handle, he noticed the absence of the sound of steps behind him, and turned to see the new hold-up. Hilde had grabbed Duo's arm, mouth open, evidently searching for the right words. After a few unnerving seconds, they came. "Just - just be careful, okay? I don't know what you guys have gotten yourself into this time, but if you don't return, I'll hunt you down and kill you myself."

Duo grinned, gave her a quick hug. "Don't worry, Heero and I don't exactly risk great peril by visiting the paper jungle down at Colony Hall, now do we? Okay, maybe we'd get some nasty paper cuts or something, but-"

Hilde punched his shoulder, but started smiling nevertheless.

"Look, I'll be back soon, okay? Just promise you make dinner, and-"

Again, he got a punch, a bit harder one this time. "It's your turn to make dinner, Duo. And remembering last Saturday's attempt, may I suggest you get some takeout on the way back?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault the oven decided to burn the roast to charcoal. How as I supposed to know you couldn't warm the thing four times as fast at four times the heat?"

Hilde put her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, fighting back the headache, but still smiling. Duo was already by the door, stepping out the moment Heero opened it. Hilde gave Heero a soft look, mouthed the words 'watch him', to which he nodded, reaffirming his earlier promise. With that, he too was out the door, leaving Hilde with the messy living room - not to mention bathroom, as she was to discover soon enough, much to her chagrin.

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-end part one-