*slaps FFN upside the head with a waffle iron* Friend of mine taught me how to do that. It's quite theraputic. *ahem* On with the story! =^_^=

Disclaimer: This year, for my birthday, I asked for omnipotent control over the five Gundam pilots contained herein, which I didn't think was too extravagant or outlandish. What did I get? A set of green plastic see-thru picnicware from Zellers. I hope my now-ex-boyfriend puts a little more thought into his next girlfriend's birthday gift. If you want to sue me for control of the picnicware, well, whatever floats yer boat, I guess... =P

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Episode Fifteen: No Rival So Bitter


"Enemies' promises were made to be broken." ~Aesop

August 21st, 1901

The day after the fancy dress ball was filled with delightful little quirks that kept Duo laughing for quite a long time. Firstly, both the chef and the butler woke up in a house that wasn't their own, and Duo was more than halfway through preparing a big, fluffy stack of blueberry pancakes when Dr. Poole graciously pointed out that he didn't live there. Nevertheless, she enjoyed the pancakes.

Second, during the boys' cab ride home, Heero felt it his civic duty to stop at the costumier's and return his Prince Siegfried disguise, and would have, if not for the unexpected happenstance that the costumier took one look at the filthy, lower-class carpet bag it had been stored in overnight and refused to take it back. Heero promised to simply buy the costume outright as a sort of memento of a very strange evening. Later that day, he returned with the cash and made good on his word; he even bought Duo the priest's clothes because he seemed to like them so much, and even if he didn't always wear the collar, he'd have a nice new suit to wear into town instead of his shabby brown tweed.

Thirdly, and best of all, they were home in time for Heero to serve mid-morning tea to Treize, while Duo watched from the doorway. The Count was seated quite unsuspectingly in a parlour chair when Heero, superficially unscathed and hiding a slight limp, walked very calmly to the man's side, put the tea set down on the table, and poured him a cup wearing a very smug smile.

Treize didn't look up until the teacup was full, but when he did, and saw Heero, he executed the most magnificent double-take, complete with bulging eyes and a slackened jaw, such that Duo had to jump back into the hall and stuff a fist in his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Heero wished the Count a good morning and walked out, still smiling.

Relena was less of a pushover. The moment she spotted the pair, and saw that Heero was limping slightly, she immediately assumed all the horrible things Dorothy was telling her about grown men ditching perfectly nice parties, getting plastered and starting bar fights were all true. She stomped over and railed at the pair of them for about ten minutes, saying if she ever heard that they were out being drunken gadabouts while she sat at home worrying ever again, they'd both be relegated to cleaning the gutters and mucking-out the horses for an entire week. Instead of getting angry, Heero turned on the charm and not only had her all softened up and in a forgiving mood in two minutes flat, but also wangled an extra week's vacation time out of her. Duo couldn't stop laughing the rest of the day.

Now, a week later, with the evening gala all but forgotten, things had gone smoothly back to normal. The weather had turned a little bit cooler, and the household was spending as much time as possible outdoors. The lazy atmosphere gave four very tired boys a chance to escape for the afternoon, while the rest of the family sat out on the terrace sunning themselves.

Heero, Duo, Trowa and Quatre received the blessing from her Ladyship to enjoy a few hours off, and by unanimous vote, they chose to spend them at the Muddy Nag. It dawned on Heero too late to remind Duo that if Catherine recognized him...

"Don't worry. I've got it covered!" the chef assured him as they strolled up the street towards the pub. Trowa and Quatre still weren't aware of his secret past as a petty pie thief, but they were about to get a crash course.

Heero looked dubious. "Are you sure? We can always go somewhere else..."

"No way! I'm ready for this!" Duo proclaimed. "Besides, Trowa hasn't seen the place yet. Come to think of it, neither have I. What's it like inside? Is it nice? Is there a kid's menu? I feel like macaroni and cheese today..."

They all let Duo ramble as they filed into the pub. It was, as always, a jovial atmosphere; there were some men playing cards over here, some other folks telling funny stories over there, and a group of well-fed ladies and gents having a sing-song 'round the piano. The smells in the air were surprisingly pleasant, for Catherine's cooking, perhaps not as good as Duo's, but still quite tempting.

Catherine spotted the group and smiled. "Heero! You brought your friends in to see me! How nice!" It was more than nice having four probably-eligible bachelors in her age bracket visiting her pub, it was downright marvelous. She looked over the two new ones with hungry eyes, one quite tall with light brown bangs that fell in his eyes, and one with...very long brown hair...in a braid...with purple eyes...and that impish grin... "YOU!!" She pointed at her much-hated pie thief, heaving, choking, and grasping at her throat.

Duo smiled and gave her a twiddly little wave as she stood there, eyes wide, sputtering and wheezing while she tried to form one coherent syllable in her rage. Finally she gave up and lunged at him with her longish fingernails bared like a cat's claws. Heero and Trowa leapt out and stopped her from tearing Duo to shreds, restraining her very carefully and gentlemanly by one arm apiece. Around the scene, the pub regulars carried on with their activities as though nothing was wrong; apparently they were used to the occasional tantrum from their hostess.

"I knew I'd get my hands on you someday! You had to slip up sooner or later!" Catherine hollered. "I swear, you'll pay, you depraved, unprincipled, rascally little low-life! As soon as these louts let go of me, I'll make pies out of you!" She struggled to be free of the boys' grip so she could make a grab for her meat cleaver, but to no avail.

Not the least bit frightened, Duo spoke softly and made calming gestures at them. "Guys, it's okay, really. Let her go." Heero and Trowa looked at each other, then gradually released their hold on the woman, but questioningly so. Quatre stood behind Duo, sensing his sudden courage.

As soon as she had the use of her arms back, she slapped Heero in the shoulder, hard. "Why isn't he behind bars!? When you came in a few days after chasing him, you said everything was taken care of!"

"Oh, he didn't lie to you," Duo interjected. "I'm not a menace to society anymore! In fact, I happen to be gainfully employed like a regular citizen," he said, grabbing his frock coat proudly by the lapels.

Catherine looked at Heero, who gave her an innocent look. She glowered and whacked him in the shoulder again. "You got him a job!? You said you took him to the magistrate's office!" Heero needed to work some more at looking innocent.

"Hey!" Duo shouted, pointing angrily at her, "you hit him again and I'll tie that apron around your face, got it?"

Heero stepped between them while Catherine fumed over the mock threat. "I never actually said he was at the magistrate's...what I said was that he was never going to steal from you again." He'd learned a thing or two from Duo about withholding details from people. "And he hasn't, correct?"

Now the firey redhead was getting rather apoplectic at both of them, and Quatre ducked out of the way to stand next to Trowa, who looked equally confused. Catherine put her hands on her hips and matched Heero glare for glare. "All this time you let me believe he was locked away somewhere! You knew he was walking about, free as air, and you didn't tell me!"

Duo stepped defensively in front of his friend, who seemed neither frightened nor guilty at Catherine's rantings, just blank as usual. "It wasn't his fault that I'm not serving time, and they don't throw people in jail for petty theft anyway! I looked it up!" Heero blinked at that; he didn't know the boy had used his new reading skills to research what might have become of him if he hadn't charmed his way into Bridlewood.

"Besides," Duo the Penitent continued, "I didn't come here to gloat or nothin'...I honestly wanted to apologize for being such a pain in the rear all those months, and to try and make amends." He dug something out of his inside coat pocket while the others all stood in silence, even Catherine. With a tiny, sweet smile, he pulled out a stack of small cards tied together with a bit of string and held it out to her. "Peace offering..."

Catherine's eyes narrowed, rife with suspicion, but she slowly took the cards and untied them. Written in semi-tidy handwriting on each one was what appeared to be a recipe. She read the titles softly, her expression growing less and less homicidal as she looked them over. "Spiced leg of mutton...chicken curry...gingers cakes...peppermint creams...mince and partridge casserole...tangerine tarts..."

"See, Heero got me a kitchen job, and I've been trying to perfect a lot of classic dishes, but I've got more time than you have to experiment on stuff like that 'cause I'm not running a whole restaurant by myself," Duo explained, "so I thought it'd be nice to share what I've learned, and to try and make up for things...y'know..."

Catherine cradled the recipe cards lovingly. Good recipes and hard work made for better pub grub, and that could finally translate into profits. She kept looking the cards over, and smiling faintly.

"Don't get me wrong though," Duo persisted, "it's not that I don't think you'd be able to come up with these by yourself, it's just that this place is so popular, it must keep you pretty busy all the time. It must be really hard on you, and I think it's amazing that you handle it so well!"

Heero was smirking on the inside. She'd been ready to slice and dice the pair of them a moment ago, and now Duo was playing her delicate ego like a fine violin. Impressive... Perhaps he'd learned something about dealing with temperamental women from Heero in exchange.

Duo held out a hand to her. "Truce?"

Totally disarmed by the boy's angelic smile and winning ways, Catherine couldn't stop herself from grinning back and clasping his hand sportingly. "Truce." Smiles appeared all around, and the four refugees from Bridlewood happily took a table in the corner for lunch, while Catherine stored her gift in a safe place. Heero once again marvelled at how much Duo wanted the people around him to be happy.

**********

Otto brought everything Relena could have possibly wanted out to the terrace, but nothing made her smile...lemonade, tea cakes, cinnamon biscuits, and her favourite puppy pal to keep her company. Not even Frederick's playful nips and licks that usually cheered her up had any effect. Dorothy sat next to her in the white rocking chair, cradling Anna Maria in her lap and offering a shoulder to Relena, as well as her invaluable insight into the male brain.

"Face it, darling, that's just the way they are," Dorothy said, "they never really grow up, they just turn into very tall, very manipulative children." She scratched Anna Maria behind the ears, and the lap cat purred in agreement.

"Ohhh, I don't understand them at all," Relena whined in frustration. She flung her head against the chair back and sighed deeply just as Treize stepped out on the terrace with his tea and newspaper.

"Something wrong, Relena dear?" he asked.

Relena looked up at him and clenched her fists. "Men!"

Treize blinked, looked down at himself, raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do about that, this is how I've always been."

"She means one man in particular," Dorothy offered, "namely Heero."

"Oh." The Count's face fell. He was royally sick of seeing that boy waltz all over the house, flaunting his lack of grievous bodily injury, and wasn't keen on wasting a perfectly good afternoon discussing him. He sat down and tried to think of a new topic of conversation.

"The frustrating part is," Relena continued before he had the chance, "even when I feel he's let me down in the most awful ways, he still has this way of talking me into absolutely anything! Last week, I started out chastising him severely for his behaviour the night of the ball, staying out all night, probably drinking and carousing until dawn, and the next thing I knew, we were talking about his paid vacation!"

"Didn't you arrange that when you hired him?" Dorothy asked.

"Yes," Relena said doubtfully, "we arranged for two weeks not to be taken before December of this year."

"Then what did he talk you into?"

Relena stared at the ground, more than slightly annoyed with herself. "The first three weeks of September."

Treize thought that was oddly short notice, but rather than dwell on it needlessly, he was given a new idea. "That sounds like a rather nice idea, actually. Why don't you take an extended holiday to your country house in Hampshire? You've been working so very hard on this place, I should think you're ready for a good, long rest."

Dorothy gave Treize a knowing smile and picked the ball up right where he had dropped it. "Oh yes! What a wonderful idea! You could take Otto and Quatre along, and I'll come too, if you like. I'm quite sure the Count would look after Bridlewood for you!"

Relena looked back and forth between them, then shook her head. "No...no, I couldn't, not with Heero gone. Perhaps later, but...now's just not the right time."

Treize and Dorothy exchanged furtive glances, and seemed to share the same quiet decision. We shall wait for the right time too.

**********

Heero and Duo bowed out of the afternoon's relaxation early, as they both needed to be back by teatime. That left Trowa and Quatre all alone facing a toureen of Catherine's spaghetti marinara, fresh off the international menu. They sampled it bravely and found that it was reasonably edible, to no great surprise; neither one had a long, painful history with Catherine's cooking like the other two did.

"Aren't you getting tired of me yet?" Quatre teased between forkfuls of pasta. He and Trowa had been nearly inseparable since they made their pact to fight his family together.

Trowa grinned. "Not in the slightest," he assured his friend. "I'm not following you around on a whim, I hope you realize. Do you know why I wanted to work for Relena when I hadn't even met her yet? And why I couldn't take my eyes off you in Bournemouth?"

Quatre thought back to all the smiles they had exchanged long before they knew each other's names. "You instinctively knew our combined net worth had more digits than the national debt?" he joked.

"No, no," Trowa chuckled, "I knew I wanted to be near you because I could tell you were kind, gentle, untouched by war...who knows how I knew, but I did, the moment I saw you. Even Relena doesn't have quite the same innocence you have...I just feel it."

"Maybe you have a sixth sense too!" Quatre exclaimed with joy. "It'd be understandable that we'd be naturally drawn to one another if we had similar 'talents'. Can you tell when people are lying to you? Or if they're friendly or dangerous? And what about animals, like Frederick?"

They leaned in close and began comparing notes, and everything seemed quite normal and relaxed; the boys were chatting away, and Catherine was just walking across the busy room with a tray of desserts, when the door opened and a shady, veiled figure slipped inside. Nobody took notice, not even Catherine, as someone of average height and draped in black from head to foot, with half their face covered, stood in the doorway and took a long look around the room. In a far corner, the figure spotted a fair-haired boy talking animatedly with another boy his own age. The shaded entity stood close to the door and sized up the distance to that particular table.

"Good afternoon! Can I interest you in some of my designer crepes?" Catherine chimed at the visitor out of nowhere. She held out the tray of desserts to the veiled figure and smiled. "Try the pink ones, they're made with real beets!"

Faster than Catherine could react, the figure shoved her aside with one strong arm, making her screech and drop the tray of crepes. At the same instant, the figure swung it's other arm in a vertical arc and slammed a small object into the floor. There was a brilliant flash of light that blinded everyone in the pub, elliciting cries of anger and surprise from the regulars.

On the other side of the room, Trowa snapped to attention at the very second the flash hit. When the object exploded, it not only set off a miniature supernova in the middle of the room, but a huge cloud of white smoke billowed out immediately afterwards, and suddenly the boys couldn't see as far as the next table. Acting on battle instinct, Trowa pulled Quatre out of his chair and hurled himself and the smaller boy to the ground, hearing something shoot past his ear a split second after, slicing the air scant inches from where Quatre had been. There was a sharp, almost wooden noise above them where something connected with the wall under tremendous force, and then there was silence.

It was a short-lived silence before the other customers started shouting all at once. Catherine was picked up off the floor by two burly patrons, coughing out curses until the doors were propped open and the smoke began to clear.

"Stay down!" Trowa whispered harshly to his charge, pushing him closer to the floor. Quatre obeyed and nodded quickly, eyes wide with shock and nearly hyperventilating.

Keeping low to the ground, Trowa dashed to the front of the pub, using Catherine's coughs to guide him through the heavy haze. As the smoke slowly dissipated, he straightened up and looked in all directions, but couldn't see the person or persons responsible for the excitement. He propped Catherine up by one arm as she rubbed the stinging smoke from her eyes. "What happened!?"

"It was a foreign woman, wearing a dark veil," she cried between hacking and wheezing sharply, "the beet crepes must have insulted her or something..."

Trowa sprinted out the door before she could finish. The street looked calm, without any hint of disturbance; he picked a direction at random and ran a few yards to the next corner, looking for the veiled woman, automatically fearing the worst. Finding no one suspicious, he ran back the other way and checked the alley. Whoever it was seemed to be long gone.

Inside the pub, Quatre peeked over the top of the table and looked at the mess. Catherine was trying to fan the residual smoke out the door with a tea towel while shouting out reassurances to the customers. "Everybody stay calm! Remain in your seats and keep eating!"

Quatre couldn't see what happened any better than the other patrons did, and very cautiously climbed back into his chair, eyes darting back and forth, tense and uneasy. Suddenly, he spotted a strange addition to the pub décor that wasn't there at the start of the afternoon; sticking out of the wall next to him, roughly at shoulder-level, was an ornate curved metal handle, bejewelled with precious stones of all sorts, and inlaid with colourful enamels. Recognizing the style and shape of the object, Quatre pulled it out of the wall with a trembling hand. It was a dagger.

By now, the atmosphere in the pub had improved considerably, but when Trowa returned empty-handed, it felt to him as if a dark cloud had followed him back inside. Defeated, he walked back to the corner table to quietly tell Quatre the bad news. "I lost her."

The blond boy didn't answer for a moment or two, just nodded slowly while studying something he held below the tabletop. Trowa watched him anxiously and sat down; he noticed the slim, silver blade in his hand, it's hilt and handle decorated with brightly-coloured flowers and birds. They both turned to examine the wall and detected a narrow slit in the plaster, where the knife had flown past them and lodged itself firmly.

"It was one of my sisters...wasn't it?"

Trowa didn't answer. They both knew it was true.

Quatre stared down at the dagger, then slowly pointed to a dark blotch on the shining blade. It was the number '28' painted on in what looked horribly like dried blood. "They didn't mean to kill me, this time," he said in a low, shaky voice. "They're just telling me that they know where I am, and they know how to find me."

He was trembling with fright, oblivious to the room full of work-a-day people absorbed with their own problems and the odd occurrance that seemed to happen for no reason. Trowa gazed humbly at the rust-coloured '28' and drew a sympathetic arm around his friend.

"It's started, Trowa...two of my sisters are already dead."

**********

To continue her training to be an unparalleled hostess, Count Khushrenada suggested that Relena hold a private little patio soirée now and then, to keep her name before society while showing off the estate at the same time. Duo was positively over the moon for the idea, as he was just itching to show off his latest creation, peach shortcake with rich vanilla cream.

The patio out back was set up that evening with extra chairs and tables, enough for six guests, a small, informal gathering. Three couples from around Regent's Park joined Relena and her regular companions, by invitation, and had a pleasant evening of gossip, food, and music by candlelight. All the servants stayed in the kitchen and had a charming get-together of their own, excepting Heero, who was in and out of the house constantly, serving one dish or another as the evening wore on.

There was a little talk among certain of the staff about what happened to Quatre in the pub earlier, but as the cheap cooking wine was passed around to some of them, it became a distant memory rather quickly. Heero still disliked social occasions of any kind, and as soon as the briefly productive meeting turned into one, he slipped away to prepare the parlour for when the guests decided to move in from the eventual cold.

The entire rest of the house was deserted, and in Heero's present mood, it suited him. He hid himself away in the front parlour, one of the farthest points away from the goings-on out back, and began preparing the fireplace. He still hadn't come to a decision about Duo.

I can't ignore how eager he is to help me, despite the danger, he thought as he picked up a fireplace poker and gave it a quick polish, but he really has no idea how much danger he could be in. Treize was probably just flexing his muscles...next time, it could be serious.

He stood facing the fireplace, polishing the iron bar in his hands until the cloth he held was black with soot; polishing things, whether they needed it or not, was his unique form of tactile therapy. It helped him think.

Maybe if I just stay a little longer in America, he'll get bored and lose interest on his own. Better than having to tell him he can't--

Heero's eyes snapped wide open, and he ceased his theraputic polishing. There was suddenly a presence in the room with him. An intruder. He stood quite still and listened for a barely audible throat drawing breath behind him, and for the tiny, muffled sound of slippered feet creeping closer and closer. No one was supposed to be in this area of the house until much later, leaving one very obvious possibility...

Stay......absolutely.........still.............

Heero waited, staring at the mantlepiece and letting his 'guest' draw nearer; he was still holding the cast-iron fireplace poker when he heard the sharp sound of metal moving swiftly against metal. He spun around, swinging the poker in a carefully-measured arc, and iron met steel with an echoing clang as the poker prevented a shining sword from slicing him in two.

The butler's eyes travelled down the length of the sword, up a strong, slender arm, and into the slanted brown eyes of his asian predator. His jet black hair was still pulled tightly back, and he wore a brace on each wrist, loosely-fitting white pants and a minimal sleeveless shirt in royal blue, allowing for maximum mobility in battle. The boy had stealthily invaded the manor while the entire household was otherwise engaged.

They squared off into duelling poses and circled each other. The asian boy sported a fiendish smile as he prowled around the parlour. "I can see why you were at the top of the list for this assignment," he said smoothly, "your reflexes are incomparable."

This time, he wasn't going to bolt; he was finally giving Heero a chance to ask the ultimate question. "Who are you?"

His opponent gave him a predatory grin as their weapons hovered in the air between them. "I am Chang Wufei," he said with a regal tone. "Get used to hearing my name, Yuy. I'm your understudy."

**********

Song, wine, and compliments about the food could only please Duo for so long before he started wondering where Heero had wandered off to. While the rest of the servants were chatting and enjoying themselves, his frown grew by degrees until he had to sneak out and investigate. As soon as the group's attention was averted, he skulked away and started roaming the halls looking for Heero.

Duo considered himself the resident expert of Heero's moods, and felt he could easily tell the difference between everyday grumpiness and an abnormally sullen disposition. He classed the butler's recent behaviour in the second category. He hasn't been right the last few days. I can tell he's been trying to tell me something...is it too much to hope for that it's the same thing I've been wanting to tell him? He shook his head. Nah, that'd be too scary. Way too scary.

As he crept farther towards the front of the house, peering into every room along the way, he began hearing odd clanging noises that seemed to come in batches with little breaks in between. They grew louder as he neared the front parlour, and soon he could hear footsteps, voices, and rugged breathing. Duo dropped silently to the floor, ducked under a decorative table just outside the parlour, and ever so carefully peeked inside.

Gliding in circles around the room were Heero and a young stranger, having a peculiar kind of swordfight. The stranger in blue and white wielded a finely crafted oriental sword, while Heero was armed only with a fireplace poker. Each time their dissimilar weapons clashed, bright orange sparks appeared, mercifully fading before they scorched the carpet under their feet. Duo would have jumped in and come to Heero's aid if not for the intriguing conversation he would have interrupted if he did.

"If you were an agent, I should have known of your existence long before you came to London," Heero declared during a lull in the action. "I've never heard of any 'Chang Wufei'." Duo guessed the strange name belonged to the other boy, and at the same time, he recognized him as the mysterious dark blur who aided them in the alley.

Wufei struck with an overhand smash, creating a fresh cascade of sparks as his sword met the iron bar. "Just because you're Lord Jeffrhyss' golden boy doesn't mean you know everything he knows." He thrust forward with the sword, but Heero parried the attack easily.

"You might not know him at all," the butler pointed out. "You could be an enemy agent, for that matter. Why should I believe you?" He made a defensive swing with the poker, and Wufei dodged it with equal grace. They seemed to be testing each other's skill and agility rather than having an all-out duel, and paused every few hits to keep on talking in riddles.

"I've got all the proof you could ever need, Yuy!" the antagonist exclaimed. "I know more about your new mission than you do! I know Jeffrhyss is sending you to America, and I also know why...in fact, my observations of you may have cemented the appointment!"

Heero paused, still very much on his guard, and tightened his grip on the iron bar. "He sent you to check up on me and report back, didn't he? That's why you've been following me!"

Wufei perched his free hand on his hip and smirked evilly. "Right first time. And the report wasn't a good one, I'm afraid. His Lordship isn't pleased with how much time you've wasted following that Maxwell boy around like a puppy."

Duo gasped, forgetting that he was trying to remain hidden, but it was well-covered by more loud clashes of metal. Me!? What did I do? Did I get Heero into trouble somehow?

"None of my acquaintances in this house have affected my peformance to even the slightest degree!" Heero nearly shouted, taking another indignant swing with the poker. "And if his Lordship is dissatisfied with my work, I would expect to hear it directly from him!"

"You're already too blind to notice how inefficient you've become!" Wufei countered, expertly deflecting both verbal and metallic attacks. "He feels the boy is an unstable influence, and that he's warping your sense of responsibility towards the mission. That's why he's reluctant to let you continue working in London."

The clanging stopped. Heero stood still in a neutral pose. "Clarify."

Wufei gracefully sheathed his sword and folded his arms. "Once you've completed your mission in America, he might just keep you there and choose someone else to watch Treize, someone more focused...and I've got the pefect person in mind." He began walking slowly towards Heero, and didn't appear to be smiling anymore. "I should have had the Khushrenada assignment. I waited for it, I trained for it, I wanted it! But Jeffrhyss chose you."

"Is that it?" Heero demanded. "You want me out of the way, so you told him I wasn't doing my job and I had to be relocated?"

"Oh, there's more," Wufei chuckled as the devious smile returned, "but you won't like it. Even if you carry out your orders perfectly and Jeffrhyss lets you return to England, you'll be lucky if the Americans don't hang you for treason first. You, sir, will have the singular honour of committing a capital crime at the Exposition, and your hosts won't be very pleased if they catch you, and they probably will. Then comes your trial, and your execution, and the way will be nice and clear for me." He grinned.

"If you wanted me dead, why did you fight alongside me in that alley? Why didn't you just let them tear me to pieces?"

"Don't be dense, Yuy!" the conspirator scoffed. "Your death could have been easily traced back to Treize, and Jeffrhyss might reconsider the mission's danger factor and assign someone with years more experience than either of us have. If you'd just fallen off Tower Bridge or gotten trampled to death by those horses, you'd be labelled as careless and replaced the next day. I tagged along to make sure your eventual demise had nothing to do with the mission."

"How thoughtful," Heero said flatly.

Wufei walked backwards towards an open window, his apparent method of ingress and egress. "I suggest you settle your affairs in London before you leave, and rest assured that I won't let myself get distracted by a common little street rat the way you did." He leapt up on the windowsill, about to make his exit. "For all you know, he could be one of Treize's lackeys, sent to distract you...but if he tries the same tricks on me, he'll be dealt with, swiftly and efficiently. I won't allow anything to get in the way of my mission!"

"It's not your mission yet, Chang!" Heero hefted up the fireplace poker and pointed it at his adversary, demanding his full attention. "And if I do make it out of my next assignment alive, you'll greatly regret any harm that comes to Duo while you're within even ten miles of this house!"

Wufei smirked, turned, and leapt out the window with exceptional grace and stealth. Heero remained where he stood, lowered the iron bar to the floor, and absorbed what had just transpired for several minutes. Without warning, the grandfather clock down the hall pealed out the quarter-hour; Heero shook himself out of the trance and began tidying up the parlour, erasing all evidence of the strange swordfight. Relena and her guests would be coming in soon.

Out in the hall, Duo was frozen solid, curled up in a little ball and shaking with genuine fear. He wasn't going to tell me he was leaving, and now there's a chance he might not come back at all! He'll probably carry on as if nothing's going to happen, and then he'll just diasappear! Why would he do that to me? I thought we understood each other! I thought--

He held his breath, digging his fingers into his shoulders as he came to an awful realization. No...this is divine punishment, Maxwell, and you've earned it...every drop. It's your fault they're doing this to him. It's your fault they're sending him away! All because you...all because...every time you look at him...

His eyes began to water. He had to get out of there before he started sobbing and alerted Heero to his presence. Drying his eyes with his sleeve, he crawled out from under the table and fled silently to the opposite end of the house.

**********

Relena's guests didn't stay very long in the front parlour, as they had seen dark stormclouds rolling in and heard thunder on the horizon, deciding they'd best get home before the sky burst wide open. It was long after the household was settled in for the night before the first few drops of rain began to fall, but within twenty minutes at the most, the thunder and lightning had built themselves up into a window-shaking crescendo.

Heero lay in his bed, meditating himself into a deep enough trance that he could no longer hear the thunder, as he had done countless times before. His ears were instructed to block out the pounding rain and crashing thunder, eyes told to ignore the powerful flashes of lightning that could easily blast through two blankets and a thin feather pilow...but somehow, it wasn't quite enough. There was an extra bit of sensory information that his brain didn't know what to do with--the sound of someone tossing and turning a few feet away.

He cancelled the trance order and looked at the other bed. Duo seemed to be huddled under the covers and shaking like a leaf. He propped himself up on one elbow. "Duo? ...are you sick?" If you are, it would explain why you haven't said two words to me since all the guests left.

Two misty violet eyes, and then a tentative elven nose peeked out from under the blanket. Duo shook his head quickly. "Sick? N-no way! I'm not sick, I f-feel fine!" A crash of thunder struck; the chef yelped and dove for cover.

Heero's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized what the problem was. "Are you scared of thunderstorms?"

"I'm not scared of anything!" came the muffled shout. Another loud boom, and the boy flinched sharply under his blanket. ...almost anything.

Heero blinked helplessly. It didn't seem possible. Duo Maxwell had, up to this point, seemed virtually bulletproof and completely immune to fear, and yet here he was, cowering in the face of nature's fury. Despite Heero's crack diagnosis, however, he had no idea what to do about it, if anything. He rolled over to face the wall. "Just try to ignore it."

Ignore it!? Duo thought from the depths of his comfy burrow. Yeah, right! Maybe, just maybe I could ignore it if I weren't using up so much of my brainpower worrying about you! Bad enough you're seeing me like this...

The subject was thought to be closed for several minutes. Heero went back to blocking out the noise, and Duo stayed under his soft, fluffy tent of pillows and blankets, trembling harder with each new crack of thunder. Heero honestly tried to put the boy out of his mind, but it just wasn't working. Every time the thunder jolted Duo further away from sleep, it sent pitiful, terrified shockwaves across the room, and it became clear that Heero wasn't about to get any sleep either.

Just as the butler was struggling vainly to think of something comforting to say, a thunderbolt three times as loud as all it's predecessors tore through the air, and a sharp gust of rain-soaked wind savagely blew the window open. Duo jumped a good six inches off the bed, then plastered himself against the wall, and bumped his head on it too, just to be thorough.

Heero leapt out of bed and shut the window with a bang, fastening the catch a little more tightly, but not before he'd been well-sprayed with freezing cold rain. Between that and Duo's paranoid antics, sleep seemed out of the question now.

He stared down at the blanketed lump that quivered violently to the rhythm of rain pelting the window. There's no way either of us are sleeping unless I can calm him down. None of his training remotely prepared him for this eventuality. Pure guesswork led him to sit gingerly on the edge of Duo's larger bed and tap the lump on what was probably his shoulder.

Startled, Duo whirled around from his position curled up facing the wall, flung off the blanket and latched fiercely onto Heero, wrapping both arms tightly around his waist and burying his face in the braver boy's green pajama top. Heero inhaled out of surprise, instantly a mistake, because Duo tightened his grip to the point that he couldn't exhale again, or take another breath besides.

Heero tried to pry the arms off, but couldn't. He decided that he could just smack Duo in the head when he got desperate for air, but also that it would probably make the boy worse in the long run. Instead, he swung his feet up on Duo's bed and stretched out on it, allowing for a bit of abdominal breathing while his ribcage was being crushed. Still...I have to sedate him somehow. Passing out from oxygen deprivation is no substitute for a decent night's sleep.

Searching his mental library of human behaviour, he remembered once seeing a mother in a city park, trying to calm her little one who had fallen down and skinned his knee. She patted his head and rubbed his back and spoke soothingly to him until the fit had passed. Heero didn't have any soothing words, but he could do the other two.

While the thunder continued at full strength, he brought his arms slowly and stiffly around Duo, shifting them and trying to find a position that would work without feeling too strange. Duo barely felt the light contact at first; he was hardly aware of anything except the guilt and fear that had been barraging his fragile heart ever since he learned of Heero's predicament. It was in every way worse than the storm by itself, and he squeezed Heero's middle even tighter, as if he were a giant five-foot-long stuffed animal, silently pleading... Don't leave, don't leave, don't leave, don't leave...

Heero was starting to feel the effects of dizziness and slight pain, and he had to fight his survival instincts to keep from flinging the boy off him. He set about gently stroking Duo's hair with one hand, while rubbing his back and nearest shoulder with the other, coaxing him to relax at least enough so that Heero could breathe again.

After awhile, Duo's grip loosened a bit, although he was still clasping his stuffed animal snugly. The thunder and lightning continued, but he didn't seem to see or hear them anymore. Finally, a tiny little snore told Heero that the boy had fallen asleep.

It was his plan from the beginning that he would go back to his own bed as soon as Duo calmed down, but for some inexplicable reason, he didn't move. Somehow, it seemed more than just not wanting to wake him up and start the whole process all over again, and that troubled Heero greatly. Alarm bells were going off in his head, and he tried to recite Lord Jeffrhyss' mantra that always calmed him down in times of crisis, but the words eluded him. His mind was a blank.

All that remained was the thought that it felt strangely comfortable to be lying there with his arms coiled lightly around his braided assistant. Heero might have stopped to wonder if this was the sort of thing Wufei meant by being 'distracted from the mission', but the warmth of another person wrapped so close lulled him to sleep quicker than he expected, and soon he was gone.

They fell asleep holding each other through the storm, and stayed that way until morning.


~~~~~~~~~~

Next, in Episode Sixteen: Duo's suspicious behaviour has a few people perplexed, a few downright worried, as he seems to have a secret plot cooking in his mental kitchen. Heero prepares to leave Bridlewood, and only two other people know that it might be the last time he sets eyes on London, or might indeed be his last mission ever.

Ok, like, my eyeballs are spinning from this whole FFN outage thing. =@_@= I need to step back and regroup, but do me a huge favour and just drop me a line in the reviews to let me know who's still with me! I have no way of knowing who's reading and who I've lost (except a few people I've already talked to). Hopefully this will be the last major hiccup. ANYWAY! Back to business. Next episode is due out August 29th! Don't miss it! Important things are happening! =^_~=