Title: Arcanum

Author: Retep

Pairings: 3x2

Rating: R

Archive: Fanfiction.net, Erotic Encounters: ,

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and I probably wouldn't know what to do with it if I did. No money is made on my part...wow that is depressing...yet true.

Feedback: If you have the time to write it, I have the time to read it.

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            Duo raced down the steps as fast as he could without falling flat on his face.  Trowa was already halfway down the staircases and wasn't paying any attention to his calls to stop. That was really pissing him off, he hated being ignored, and he wasn't too keen on being forced to run down many flights of steps either.  Not to mention it was many flights of very poor lighted steps. Apparently Wufei's section didn't have the funding to keep the stairways well lit.  Maybe I'll forget about trying to reason with him and just kick his ass into doing the mission, Duo thought between ragged breaths. 

            Finally, he caught Trowa by the wrist just as he was about to exit the building.  "And where do you think you're going?" he gasped as he tried to catch his breath. 

            Trowa didn't bother turning around, "Out."

            Trowa had managed to channel all of his anger into the tone of that one simple word, and Duo almost let go of him before his curiosity overtook his sense of self-preservation.  He kept his grip firm, "All right, what's going on?  Why are you so pissed off all of a sudden?"

            Duo cursed as he was spun around and Trowa reversed the hold on his wrist with a bruising force.  His self-defense skills kicked in and he attempted a punch with his free hand, which was easily blocked and then secured by larger boy.  He pushed Duo back into a wall.  Duo continued to struggle against him for a while but finally stilled and sighed in exasperation.  "Damn't Trowa I just wanted to talk with you, not fight with you!"

            "Here is some free advice Duo," Trowa leaned in close so that their noses almost touched, "when I want to leave, stay out of my way."

            "Give me a break; do you really think that kind of intimidation crap is going to work on me?"

            Trowa nodded.

            "Well screw you buddy! I don't scare that easy and I don't give up either, so why don't you save yourself some pain by letting the fuck go of me and telling me what set you off!"  Duo took a deep breath.

            "Finished?"  The smugness in Trowa's voice made Duo grit his teeth. He renewed his struggle against Trowa's hold and this time it paid off.  He managed to drive his knee into Trowa's stomach and escaped while he doubled over.  Duo was about to take off running when Trowa shot a hand out and caught his ankle, taking him instantly to the ground. He was quickly grabbed, hauled to his feet, and thrown roughly into the wall.  This time Trowa used his full body to pin him there and burned a deadly stare into his eyes.

            "That wasn't smart." Trowa's words held a cold fury.

            Duo actually was scared now, but he was damned if he was going to let Trowa see that.  He highly doubted that he was going to really kill him seeing as he was the only informant on the Organization.  However, that didn't mean that Trowa was beyond roughing him up a little.  So he decided his options were to either plead with Trowa to let him go, or push his luck and see if he could get him to talk.  The first option left him safe, but he never got anywhere by being safe.  He made his decision quickly and prepared himself for the worst, "Oh so you like the rough stuff huh Trowa?  Careful, I bruise easily."

            "That's the fucking idea," Trowa growled tightening his grip to prove the point.

            Duo grimaced in pain but continued, "Y'know I find it funny that just a few hours you were hell bent on jumping my bones and now you seem hell bent on breaking them. Oh I get it…" a wicked grin spread across Duo's face, "…you're sexually frustrated aren't you?  Well too bad there isn't a lot that we can do about that until this whole situation is over, providing I live of course.  So now that we have that settled how about you let go of me and we get back to Wufei and…" Duo's speech was cut off by his own yelp of surprise as he was violently spun around so that he was facing the wall and was pushed into it by the force of Trowa's body against his backside.

            A hot breath caring the faintest whisper found its way to Duo's ear, "Why are you doing this to me?"

            Duo tried to turn around to look Trowa in the eyes but he was quickly immobilized.  He obviously didn't want the face to face confrontation, and Duo decided he didn't want to push his luck any further. If this was the only way Trowa could open up it was still better than nothing. "Why am I doing what to you?" Duo softly said, his voice losing all of its mockery.

            "Don't act stupid, your plan…don't you realize the risk?"

            "What?  That I might die?  Come on Trowa, I'm an ex-Gundam pilot…it's not like the possibility of death is anything new.  Besides, we are on a time limit; if we don't act fast then the Organization is going to get beyond our grasp and then many people are going to be caught in the crossfire between them and the government.  It has to be done; I have to do it…simple as that."

            Duo felt his hands be released and almost instantaneously two strong arms wrapped around his waist from behind. His body tensed and Trowa's voice was again soft in his ear, "I don't want it to be you."

            Duo let out a sigh as the tension went out of his body, and he leaned back into Trowa's embrace.  "That's what is bothering you?"

            "That's what is bothering me."

            "Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?  It would have saved me some bruises."

            Trowa lifted one of his hands from Duo's waist and brought it up to gently massage his wrist. "Sorry…I lost it."

            "Well see that Trowa?  I can handle you, so I bet those Organization cronies won't stand a chance."  Duo slowly turned around in Trowa's arm's to face him, and this time he met no resistance.  "So what do you say?" he said putting his own arms around Trowa's neck.

            "I hate the idea."

            "But you're in?"

            "Can't we just dress someone else up as you and let them be the bait?"

            "Do I have to even dignify that with an answer?"

            "Why do I even bother with you?"

            To answer, Duo guided Trowa's head down into a long soft kiss that left them both breathless.  Trowa smirked slightly, "Oh yeah that's why."

            There was a loud clomping sound signaling that someone was coming down the stairway.  They heard Wufei's voice call out, "Are you two down there?"

            Trowa cursed as he and Duo quickly moved apart.  "What does he have some kind of fucking radar?"

            Duo just snickered and called up, "Yeah we're down here!  What's up Wu-man?"

            "The name is Wufei, Maxwell." Wufei called back.

            "The name is Duo, not Maxwell." Duo responded.

            Wufei finally reached the bottom floor and he gave a serious glare in Duo's direction, "You should be thankful that I don't refer to you as 'idiot'."  Wufei paused for a minute taking in the sight of Duo and Trowa.  "You two look like shit, what the hell happened?"

            "I fell down the stairs and used Trowa as a landing pad."

            Wufei pinched the bridge of the nose in an attempt to alleviate his growing headache.  "Forget it, I'm sorry I asked.  Look, in an hour we are going to brief the rest of the team on floor twelve.  Try to pull yourselves together before everyone else gets here.  I don't want my men to think that I am resting their fates in the hands of a nitwit."

            "But I thought they already knew that you were in charge of their fates."

            "MAXWELL!"

            Duo held up his hands defensively, "All right Wu-ma….I mean Wufei, I'll get it together."  Duo started up the stairs leaving Wufei and Trowa staring after him, "I'll work the kinks out of the plan with Quatre, why don't you two take a walk and loosen up or something?"  With that said he disappeared up the stairways.

            "I think I'm going to kill him."  Wufei stated flatly.

            "Get in line."

            Wufei waited to speak until he was sure that Duo was out of hearing range.  "So you want to tell me what's going on between the two of you?"

            "What are you talking about Wufei?"

            "It's not like you to be deceptive with me Barton.  I see the way that you look at him, I'm not blind."

            Trowa met Wufei's eyes sharply, "I've got it under control."

            "See that you keep it that way." Wufei quickly changed the subject, "I guess we should get the meeting room ready for the mission briefing."

            "Great," Trowa mumbled sarcastically, "Well then, how about a game of rock/paper/scissors for who has to sweep out the rodent corpses?"

            "Damn dilapidated building.  All right then...1, 2, 3, go." Wufei through rock, and Trowa through paper. "How is it you always win Barton?"

            "Because you always throw rock."

            Duo entered the apartment again intent on getting the mission together as fast as possible, completing it, and finally finish off what he and Trowa had started.  Things were getting complicated, that was for damn sure.  It all felt like some kind of dream that he was about to wake up from at any moment.  Yeah, he would wake up and he would be alone, in some rundown apartment, in some hellhole section of a random colony.  He pinched himself.

            "OW!!!"

            Quatre looked up from the papers he had been reading to see Duo in the stairway. "What on earth are you doing Duo?"

            "Uh…trying to get your attention?"

            "Mission accomplished.  Now that you completed that goal how about we get to work on the next one?"

            "Sounds good Quat," Duo plopped down in the seat across from him, "What are you looking at?"

            "Just some blueprints that I made of the inside of the Organization's Headquarters.  I admit that they are sketchy, but it was the best I could do with the limited information that we have had so far.  I want you to take a look at them and if you have anything to add or change just make a correction."

            Duo took the map from Quatre and grabbed a pencil off the counter.  He spread out the map on the floor of the kitchen and started grunting and scribbling at what Quatre viewed to be an alarming rate.   He just watched in shock as Duo pretty much crossed out half of the map and drew in an entire section underneath the bottom floor.

            "Duo, what are you doing?  There is no basement at the headquarters!"

            "What do you mean there is no basement?  Where have you been getting your information?"

            "Umm…well, just bits and pieces of info that we could get out of Organization recruits who didn't make it past their basic training.  But they said that their definitely wasn't a basement, they were given free range of the area."

            Duo laughed as he continued to scribble out things on the map, "The basement is where the main computer is.  Do you really think that they would let any recruit who knew about it live?  To get access to the basement you have to be at least a Class A soldier, and that takes at least two years."

            "But I thought all of the computers were located in Sector G."

            "Hehehe…there is no Sector G."

            "What?!"

            "They made it up.  It is a brilliant decoy.  Let me guess Quat…the recruits that you talked to, they said they never had actually been to Sector G, but that everyone knows that is where the computers are kept."

            Quatre had a faint blush on his cheeks, "Umm, actually yes."

            "They tell the recruits that to ease their curiosity and it makes them feel trusted.  Of course I shouldn't find that so amusing, I mean it worked on me for a few weeks."

            "Only a few weeks?  I thought you said it took years to get access."

            "Nothing satisfies my curiosity till I see it with my own eyes."

            "Do you think that you can fix the map in an hour?"

            "Yeah, that even leaves me enough time to draw in some nice stick figure representations of Organization members."

Yeah it's a little short, but I am trying to get this story done between classes and…[Insert more lame excuses here].  Seriously thanks to everyone for their patience and special thanks to everyone who reviews.                              ~Retep