Summary: A team of five young anthropologists are recruited by the notorious Romafeller Foundation to investigate something long lost; instead, they find each other and much more than they had bargained for. 1x2, 3x4, 5xS, other. AU. WIP.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters; however, the concept and the plot are of my devising. No profit has been made or will be made from this venture, and no infringement of rights is intended.
Note: All coincidences are purely coincidental; this short story is not meant to infringe or insult any anthropologist anywhere. As I am not acquainted with ethnographers and I have just begun my first anthropology course, all of the anthropological activities are my creation and any passing similarity to established protocol is just that, passing and no more. It is my sincere hope that true anthropologists are more diligent and less self-centered that the characters portrayed.
Chapter 10: Work Must Go On
Something murmured, and then gently touched his shoulder.
Heero lashed out, and then blinked when he felt silken hair against his hands. His fist was poised, pressed slightly against the tip of Duo's nose, ready to drive the small bone there through his brain. Duo.
Duo. Anthropologists. Team. Assignment. Right. Three am in the morning?
Disoriented, Heero released Duo. Carefully, he relaxed his muscles by group, took a deep breath, and sighed. It wasn't a test. It wasn't a test.
Blinking, Duo rubbed the back of his neck, and then spoke quietly, "Hey, Heero?"
Wufei still wasn't back. "Hn."
"What do gorillas do if something dies?"
Now, it was Heero's turn to blink as his brain processed the unexpected question, chewed up the information, and spat something out. "They have a plant-based diet."
"I mean, like another gorilla or something." Duo laughed a little, but he looked…there was a word for it, Heero knew, but did not know the word. "What is another one of their little gorilla war buddies dies or something?"
Heero blinked. That seemed obvious. "They mourn."
"Yeah, like how?" Avidly, Duo latched onto the fact. " Tell me! Like so?"
Heero made an eloquent sound of annoyance. "Read my report."
The darkness fell back into silence, and Heero was three fourths of the way through his sleeping process. "Hey, Heero?"
"Hn." Could he hide the body somewhere? Or make it look like an accident? Not viable. The natives knew and understood the territory. Was it possible for Heero to die of a deep-set desire to strangle?
"Is the report on your laptop?"
"Yes." Heero ground out. Quickly, he flipped open the laptop, turned it on, and uploaded the document into Duo's pc, and handed it over.
The rest of the right went dreamlessly, and without incident.
In the morning, he woke up and dressed in his characteristic blue biking shorts and green tank top, did his exercises, and ate a nutrition bar. He handed one to Duo, whose eyes were still glued to the screen of the pocket pc as he furiously took notes in his black journal, and Duo ate it without a word.
Then, suddenly: "Why did you study them?"
"I needed to study something within sufficient range of Jay's radio signal."
"There were chimpanzees sharing the southern edge of the territory, which was, by your description, likely to be in a place that contained less radio interference." Duo pointed out, skeptically, snapping his pc shut and tucking his journal away.
"Hn." Heero acknowledged.
"So…" Duo pressed, "So, Stone Face, why the gorillas?"
Heero thought about it. He did not know. It seemed like a good question to consider, really; but, it had just seemed natural, at the time.
"Damn, talking to you is like talking to a wall. No wonder you got along so good with the apes! Man, you got the same level of communication. Shit." Duo sighed, and flopped back into the hammock. It swayed precariously. "So like you were really into that whole scene, huh? Citations are just fab. Damn, what's this taste in my mouth? It's like morning breath only gritty? Yo, did you give me something?"
"Hn." Heero finished organizing his things, and looked at Duo. As he was the linguist in their pair, and needed the most social interaction, he generally directed the activities of the day. Remarkably, he could do so with a modicum of responsibility, if not outright sensibility, although one would not have been able to derive that conclusion from his syntax.
But, Duo just flipped his braid around, and played with it thoughtfully.
If Duo did not choose an activity soon, Heero would begin to default into productivity, and fall into the rhythm of transcription.
"Sooo, so so and so!" Duo sprang up from his hammock and began making himself some cowboy coffee. "What do you think about our progress on the "mission objective" that that nancy prat handed out to us like a blue bill, eh?"
"No methodology exists for establishing trust. Only time and consistency seem to provide the necessary basis for such behavior." Heero summarized several readings.
"God, Heero! You are such an absolute—"
"—ly correct anthropologist." Trowa finished. "Excellent supposition."
Heero nodded. That was a high compliment coming from Trowa, a man who was able to gain the aforementioned trust of many secretive human groups.
"Tro! You're back!" Duo bounced around happily and then rushed up to heartily exchange back-thumpings and grins with Quatre. "Q-man, the sweetest of the honey bunches, did I ever miss you! With the lump of lead for company, nights were as long as they were dull!"
Trowa rolled his eyes. "You picked him."
"Duo." Quatre said reproachfully. "You must know, I am no longer the "sweetest" one here. I am the debt-leader of the Manganacs."
"Manganacs? Debt-leader? Man oh man, baby, does it sound like you've got one helluva story to tell!" Duo pushed his sleeping bag off the hammock, and then fluffed it up and positioned himself by the steeping pot of cowboy coffee.
"Is the recorder on for the report?" Heero asked.
"Hm? Oh, no." Quatre smiled apologetically. "We only have about a bar of batteries between us and even less memory…and that's even with staggering the usage of our devices. Luckily, we chose Trowa's pda for the upload of the report docs, and so at least that record wasn't lost…I am tired. Why would I want to record something I've already been through, anyway? Oh, that didn't sound quite…"
"Summaries can include interpretation." Heero said, stiffly.
Considering, Trowa nodded. "Point."
"Woah, do you hear that shit they're singing out there? Heero, upload their files as quick as you can, so that we can get out there! This sounds too damned exciting to miss, Cat!" Duo grinned. Bouncing up, he gulped down the scalding hot coffee even as he grabbed his recorder and leapt out.
Quatre sighed wearily. He did not look to be at optimum levels—it seemed that he was injured, partially doctored, unclean, and exhausted. "Yeah," Quatre whispered. "No problem, Duo. No problem."
Work went on. Simply handing the devices over, Trowa waited patiently for the upload and for the extra bit of power that could be absorbed from Heero's battery.
So, Heero completed it and redistributed the devices.
All of them went out to make what they could of the rambunctious rabble, the chattering women and the beaming men.
Snagged, Quatre was wedged into a cluster of admirers. Rashid was kneeling before him, pressing Quatre's hand against his forehead, and murmuring reverently. Some of the younger hunters were grinning opening, and ruffling Quatre's brilliant blond hair even as their sisters and wives touched Quatre's pale skin and cooed over him.
Smiling with painful compassion, Quatre delicately pried the feminine fingers from his forearm and nodded at the men. "You flatter me, really."
Slipping off to the side, Trowa managed to sidle into the domain of the older women and around the food preparation area. A blithe purpose filled that place around the fire as the women bustled to and fro, so close and never touching, a culinary choreography. At least the busy atmosphere there was less stifling than the one Quatre was ensconced in.
Of course, Duo was darting everywhere, managing to get everyone's opinion of anything, and he definitely focused on figuring out what exactly was going on and why, while obtaining everyone's opinions of hunting, gaming, killing and the rituals involved.
It felt a bit strange to be away from his incessant chatter, but most of the pairs had split up, as families had welcomed the bruised hunters home. The smell of cooking and smoked game was heavy in the air.
Wufei had shown up, trailing after the shaman. His brow was furrowed.
Contenting himself with the periphery, Heero picked up his video recorder and set about documenting. He watched until his feet ached.