Part 28

AC 198, August 24th, L4 Colony Cluster, Winner Mansion, 13:46 AM

Heero was watching Quatre. Not just watching over him, or making sure he was safe, no, he was watching him. Taking the time to look at him and to order a few thoughts in his head methodically, because that was what he usually did with his thoughts. He was standing near one of the great windows of Mr Winner's office, that Quatre had claimed as his own, and that he and Iria had invaded with a mountain of papers covered in figures. As he was supposed to be Quatre's bodyguard, he had not left him for even a second in the last days. It was doubtful anything would happen now and here, but after the events that had followed Mr Winner's death, Heero felt better when he had Quatre in his vision scale. So he had taken his laptop with him to at least pretend to work on the security system (which really didn't need it) and think a bit about what had happened to him lately.

He wasn't that worried about security. Rashid's men were well-trained, and it was thanks to them that Iria's injuries were only minor ones. Rashid himself would be ready to sacrifice his life if it could save his young master, and all of his men clearly worshipped Quatre. Duo and Trowa had agreed to make some patrols in the immense estate (though Heero suspected most of them would be interrupted in spots where the grass was nice and no one could see ; or where people could see, he didn't put it past Duo to be an exhibitionist). Wufei was kind of acting as a liaison agent between their little group and the two GSA Agents (or, according to Duo, he was 'coming to terms with the enemy', which apparently implied lots of private conversations with Sally Po and a furious blush any time said conversations were mentioned). And finally, in the last two days, Quatre had barely left the office for anything else but meals and sleep, and that was when Heero and Iria reminded him he needed both of them to function correctly. Which meant the chances of anyone trying to kill Quatre were very remote, if not non-existant.

So now, Heero had even stopped pretending to work on anything, left his laptop open on the small table he had set it upon and gone to look outside, thinking while automatically checking the security arrangements.

'That's quite some place you're stuck into, Heero, ne ?', the familiar little voice said.

He had been hearing it again, but lately it was not telling him stuff he absolutely refused to hear, or forcing him to watch reality. Because now, Heero could grasp all of the reality he had in front of him. He did not need to run away or hide anymore. Well, actually, that was not exactly true, he was still bearing the name of someone who didn't exist, and his new line of action as an underground informant was not the safest one, not to mention taking care of Quatre's safety, but … but it was different now, because he had a place to go back to. Someone waiting for him. Someone caring about him.

Odin had cared about him too, but the relationship they had shared was nothing like that. Heero had never known why Odin had taken him with him and raised him. He had just gladly accepted everything the man could teach him. He was almost sure Odin felt some kind of affection for him, but something had always lacked. Particularly once he had begun to grow up. And Heero now realized what had happened. By the age of fifteen, he had been able to master any mission almost single-handed. Odin had always been the best, but Heero was better. And Heero was starting to realize his mentor had been scared of him, scared of what he had created. Scared of that killing machine he had brought up. Odin had seemed to see the errors he had committed too, trying to make the young man open up, go out and date, have a normal life. Nothing had worked. And then, Odin had been captured, judged and executed, and Heero had been left alone, a perfect killer, but an inadapted teenager, unable to live what people would consider a normal life because he had no idea what it looked like.

And now … Heero tore his gaze away from the window to look at Quatre. The blond young man and his sister were poring over hundreds of documents. Quatre was reading a report, calculating something on his computer, taking notes and talking to his sister all at once, his face set in that little frown he had when he was concentrating hard. In fact, he was so concentrate that he was pouting and not even noticing it, and that was really too cute. Heero shook his head at the mere thought that he, Heero Yuy, could consider calling anyone cute. That was more Duo's way of speaking. And yet …

Meeting Quatre had changed so much. Feeling Quatre all of the time was a blessing made only more precious by the hurtful memory of those days when the young man had shut himself away, trying to bury pain away in the same manner Heero had, and failing. Well, Heero had to admit that Quatre had done better than him on that one anyway. It had only taken three days to Quatre to crack up and look for help. It had taken Heero two years to even start acknowledging that maybe something was wrong in the way he was handling Odin's death and his whole life in general.

Being needed was also something that was very new for Heero. He had been needed by people because of is abilities, needed to perform his job. Quatre needed him, and only him. His presence, his love, his affection. And he needed Quatre as much. Those three days without their connection had been true hell, Heero was just starting to realize it. It was something he never wanted to live again. And yet, he had no idea what would happen once Une would be removed from the equation. He was fairly certain Quatre wouldn't send him away, but …

'Ah, insecure feelings of young love …', the little voice mocked.

'Shut up', Heero replied, careful not to voice it out loud like he was used to.

'But this is what it is ! It's sooo cute !'

'It's not cute !'

'Okay, so it's passionate and new and shining with a light that you never knew could exist …'

'Oh, shut up !'

Watching Quatre again, Heero saw the young man look up from his computer to the place he had been sitting to before. When Quatre didn't see him, there was a little flash of panic in the green-blue eyes and a little bolt of it ran along the connection. Of course, one second later, Quatre saw him, and flashed him one of those irresistible smiles that seemed to light up his whole face. Heero had never felt more glad when Quatre had started smiling for real again. Of course, his lover was still hurting and sad, there was no way such hurt could heal that quickly. But the pain and hurt were muted behind the love and the fact that Quatre was so glad to have all his friends with him right now. The fact that Quatre was glad to have him right now.

And that was not all. There were also the others. Wufei, and his tortured past, who still had the strength not to go and murder Une on the spot. Wufei and his sense of duty and honor, Wufei, always demanding a lot from others, but harder on himself than anyone else. Trowa, quietly strong. Heero had not exchanged more than a few words with the green-eyed young man but he didn't need to. Trowa was so much like himself, a child raised to be a soldier, forced to grow-up too fast in an unfriendly environment. And yet somehow finding some kind of completion when he had found his sister again. And finding completion and love and understanding in the bright violet eyes of a L2 street child. Duo, and his constant smile, his useless pranks, his merciless teasing. Duo and the immense sadness he was hiding, yet somehow always caring, always loving and giving out that love to anyone he deemed worthy of it. Duo, who was the first one to have ever made the Perfect Soldier lose his temper, and this in a record time of five seconds, Duo who could get under his skin the way an annoying little brother could.

They were a strange group. They were family. Together, they were a family to each other. To Heero, who had never had anything that even resembled a family. To Duo, who only had Hilde, and had seen his only family being burnt down with his only house. To Trowa, who had found with them the kind of understanding and love he had never found with the mercenaries. To Quatre, who felt much closer to them than to his own sisters. To Wufei, whose family had abandoned him to his grief. And Heero would sooner die than see anyone hurt his family. Une just had no idea what she had put herself into. She had hurt each and everyone of them, be it directly or indirectly. She was probably gonna try again. And she would pay for it.

'Yeah, right, I got that one quite some time ago, buddy', the little voice said. 'Mission accepted. No reason to get all worked up like that right now, especially not when you've got your gorgeous blond not that far.'

Heero looked back at Quatre. The blond young man looked in his element, and in his eyes was the same feral look Heero knew he had on his face when he successfully accomplished a mission. Yes, they were different and yet so much alike. It was a miracle they had found each other. Nothing would separate them now, Heero would make sure of that.

Forcing himself not to think about the nights because getting all hot and bothered in tight leather pants in the middle of Quatre's office with his sister here was definitely not a good idea, Heero looked out again, suddenly noticing two lean figures … Walking on the wall encircling the estate. He tensed immediately, but relaxed as soon as he noticed who it was. Trowa and Duo. Trowa was walking in long even strides, so used to tightropes that this looked like an easy walk for him. Duo was following in bouncy steps, with the grace of a cat, somehow managing to stay on the wall without falling, though Heero failed to see how that could be possible. They probably felt observed, because they turned to the window, and Duo waved frantically at him, shouting something he didn't hear. The young American then turned to his lover to talk excitedly, and Trowa nodded, then addressed some signs to Heero, before both of them jumped outside the estate, on the other side of the wall.

O.O.O.O.O

"I'm sure Une-babe ain't gonna try anythin' right now anyway", Duo said following Trowa on the wall. "Heero's bein' paranoid and anal retentive, and …."

"And you'd do the same if it was me being threatened so stop teasing", Trowa said calmly.

"I would most certainly NOT become anal retentive, although I can become paranoid when the need strikes, Tro-chan. Still, I'm most likely to become psychotic and kill everyone in my way. My way to work out paranoia."

"Then I should be careful not to give you any reason to become paranoid, now should I ?", Trowa said, deadpan. "Yet, I can take care of myself, so that shouldn't be an issue."

Duo smiled, looked up at the sky, and almost bumped into Trowa as his lover stopped abruptly.

"What ? …"

Duo didn't finish the question as a funny sensation at the back of his neck told him he was being watched. Turning around, he scanned the Mansion and finally noticed a dark silhouette behind one of the office's window.

"Hey, that's Heero", he said, waving madly. "OI, HEE-CHAN ! HOW'S IT HANGIN' OVER THERE ?"

"You know, I don't think he can hear you", Trowa said quietly. "Maybe it's for the best, because if he hears you calling him that, I'm going to be picking your limbs from all over the place."

"You mean you wouldn't stand in front and defend me ?"

"From Heero ? Sorry, Duo, I really love you, but I am rather attached to my own limbs. In their right places, I should add. If you just tried not to attract trouble …"

"I do not attract trouble, trouble usually finds me on its own", Duo protested petulantly. "Oh, whatever … Ya know what ? I'm pretty sure nothin' will happen today, so why don't we skip guard duty and I take you downtown ? There's a reason they call L4 a paradise y'know ? And I spent most of my school holidays here, when I was still in school, of course. So what d'ya think ?"

Trowa had only to look at the shining sparkles in Duo's violet eyes to understand how much that would please the braided teen. And everything that made Duo happy was absolutely fine by him, and he had never had time to explore L4 when he was travelling with the circus anyway. Not to mention that it would get him some one on one time with Duo, and he could definitely go with lots of that. Quatre's estate was fine, but there were so many servants and people going in and out all day that most places had a tendency to become a bit crowded. Nodding his approval to his lover, Trowa absentmindedly resorted to the hand signs he had been taught as a child to inform Heero of what they were doing. No need to have a disgruntled killer after them because they were missing for a few hours.

"Whatcha doin' ?", Duo asked curiously.

Trowa waited until he saw Heero give him a sharp nod before jumping down the wall, soon followed by Duo.

"I was just letting him know where we were heading."

"Oh, I thought I recognized some of that stuff. Looks like the hand language we had in the gang. I suppose most of it came from military and we twisted it …"

Duo shook his head suddenly, his violet eyes growing a bit misty.

"We do have lot to talk about, don't we, Tro-chan ? I mean, I'm sure of my feelings about you, and we had plenty of times to talk before too, but … I'm not sure I know everything about you, and … I want to. And I want to tell you everything about me, even if some things there are not pretty."

Trowa's only answer was to pull Duo closer, to press a light but firm kiss on his lips, and then to hold him by the waist.

"Alright, Duo Maxwell. You said you'd make me discover the wonders of L4, and you wanted us to talk. I'm pretty sure we can combine those two things."

"Sure", Duo said with a big smile. "I truly have the most amazing boyfriend ever, don't I ? You're fantastic, you know that ?"

"I know", Trowa said. "Quatre told me already."

O.O.O.O.O

"I'll have to see that with Laylah", Iria said, shuffling through various papers, "but that lab sounded suspicious, and the merger had been stopped for further inquiry. It's her branch, she'll know what to do and that's one more thing off our shoulders and … Quatre, are you even listening to me ?"

Iria looked up to discover her brother not listening to her at all and gaping. Following his gaze she saw Heero standing near the window. He made quite a picture, his lean body all dressed in black near the very bright window, the sun bringing out lighter strands in his chocolate hair. But what was truly breathtaking was that he was smiling. Not that little ironic smirk she had seen on his lips more than once, not that little upturn of the lips that both he and Trowa did and which seemed to be the equivalent of full-scale laughter … a real smile, quiet, appeased. He was staring in the void, his bright blue eyes softened and contemplating something inside.

Iria shook her head. 'I am a married woman and I am twenty years older, I should do well to remember that, but Allah he's gorgeous. No wonder my Cat was attracted to him.' She shot a look to her younger brother, who truly was hypnotized by the view, which only confirmed that Heero was probably not smiling a lot usually. Iria made up her mind in about a quarter of second.

"Quatre ? I think we should stop here for today. You've been working non-stop for two days, I'm sure an afternoon off would do you the greatest good. I will handle the most urgent stuff with Djibril."

"Uh ? Oh, sure, thanks, Iria", Quatre said, snapping out of his trance. "You're probably right, I think I'm going to nap or something. I still need to talk with Agent Noin about the press conference, she needs to know what the security arrangements are going to be."

"Good. You do that, and we'll start again tomorrow. You're doing just fine, Quatre. Father would have been proud of you."

Quatre's face became more somber.

"I hope he would have."

"I'm sure of it, Quatre. I know it. You are made for this job and you know it. Now shoo ! Both of you ! Have fun ! I don't want to see any of you near this office before tomorrow morning, 9 AM !"

"Yes, Ma'am", Quatre guffawed.

He went to Heero, but stopped his lover when he made a move to go gather his laptop.

"No way. If I'm leaving all my work here, so are you."

Heero seemed torn between decisions for a moment, but silently gave in. Whatever happened, Iria trusted him to have the laptop back before the end of the afternoon. She went back to her papers as the two young men went out.

As soon as they were out of the office, Quatre dragged Heero to a more secluded corner of the corridor, pinned him against the wall and kissed him. Not a savage, fiery kiss of the kind Heero had become accustomed to, but a very tender, gentle kiss that made his knees feel very weak all of a sudden. Heero slid down to the floor, taking Quatre with him. They must have made a silly picture sitting there against the wall, but none of them cared.

"Not that I didn't like it", Heero whispered when he found his breath back, "but what brought that on ?"

Quatre smiled and traced the outline of Heero's lips with a finger.

"You should smile more often", he whispered back. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you looked, standing there in the lights, and smiling ? I had never seen such a beautiful thing in my life."

Quatre punctuated his statement with another tender kiss, which was just as good since Heero was trying to remember how human beings were supposed to talk. Quatre had just said he was beautiful. That was the first time someone told him that. Duo always teased him by calling him cute or sexy, but not beautiful.

"You are", Quatre insisted, as if he could read his mind. "You just don't know it yet because no one showed you. I can show you. I will show you just how beautiful you are in my eyes."

"Katoru …", Heero gasped, only to stop when Quatre started nuzzling that little place in his neck that made him lose it all the time.

"Yes ?", Quatre asked innocently.

'Gods', Heero thought, 'he's playing with me in the middle of a corridor and I'm letting him. But damn it when he's got that look on his face, he could ask me to jump off the building and I would do it.'

"Didn't you want to sleep ?", Heero finally managed to ask.

"I intend to, but I need someone to tuck me in", Quatre answered, the living impersonation of candor, purity and innocence. "After all, there could be monsters under my bed. I need someone strong to check, because I am scared to go there by myself."

Heero gasped again when he realized that Quatre's hands had somehow found their way under his shirt and were roaming on his chest. His pants suddenly felt very tight. He heard and felt Quatre laugh against the skin of his neck, where the blond young man had started his ministrations again.

"I thought you were tired", he protested weakly.

"Oh, but it's Duo who has a problem with lying. I personally don't like it, but if it can get me what I want …."

"And what do you want ?", Heero asked maliciously.

"You", Quatre answered in a husky voice. "I'd say right here and now, but there is a slight chance someone would walk in on us and I don't think you'd be very comfortable with it anyway. And … you know it's not completely a lie. I fully intend to be tired once we're done."

Those last words broke down any objections Heero could have had. It was not like he was able to refuse anything to Quatre anyway, and certainly not when his lover was half-undressing him in the middle of a public place. Quatre's hands were all over him and driving him crazy, just as his mouth went down on Heero's demanding another kiss.

"Alright, I'll tuck you in", Heero said through short gasps. "But I don't have long. I need to go see Noin after, she needs me to fetch some kind of info …"

"Then let's hurry up", Quatre said. "I want to take full advantage of you before you go away."

O.O.O.O.O

Lady Une was at the spatioport when Zechs arrived. And the young man was sure she was not happy to see him, even though she had requested his presence. But then, he had never been that eager to be around her, and she had never made any move to even pretend to be friendly. Maybe that was for the best, actually. Zechs wasn't sure he would have been able to put up with both Treize and Une. But then again, in the last six months, he had had very few occasions to be in contact with Treize's favorite killer, and in his opinion that was alright. Une didn't like him and the reason for it was obvious.

She was jealous. Zechs had noticed quite early on that Une worshipped Treize in a disgusting manner. Yet he was the personal assistant, spending his days with him, sharing his secrets, stealing his affection away. Zechs was not a fool, and he knew that Watanabe had only agreed to send him on the mission because he thought the good-for-nothing aristocrat would be disgusted by it and ask for a transfer. He also knew that his look had been one of the major reasons Treize had hired him, and he had spent months playing hard-to-get, misunderstanding hints on purpose and letting the man come closer, only to evade him at the latest moment. It had worked because Treize seemed sure that he would get what he wanted in the end, and he enjoyed the game too. But the Lady did not. Before Zechs had arrived, she had Treize's undivided attention. Now she was forced to listen to Treize praising Zechs, and she didn't like it at all. In fact, Zechs was pretty sure that the only reason he was still alive was the fact that Treize was fond of him. Lady Une would never do anything that would cause grief to Treize. But hadn't it been the case, Zechs had not doubt he would have ended up like Long Meiran.

'And here I am, supposedly to help her deal with the situation. I supposed there is more to that than I first thought. She probably jumped on the first occasion she had to take me away from Treize. That's pathetic.'

Fifteen minutes later, pathetic was the last word on Zechs mind to describe Une. She had led him to an industrial neighborhood. The hanger had looked okay from the outside, nothing differentiating it from the other ones. On the inside, however …

The place was filled with crates containing weapons that went from the traditional handgun to a rocket launcher. There were quite a lot of people in here too, cleaning weapons, training, running around … Zechs counted between fifty and sixty men that were without any doubt trained killers. He also recognized some of the weapons dealers that his inquiry would bring down, delivering yet other crates of weapons and ammunitions.

"Une, what does all this means ?", he finally asked. "You hardly need me when you've got all those people with you, I mean, I'd only be in the way …"

He didn't have to feign the surprise in his voice, for once.

"I need someone I can trust", Lady Une answered coldly. "Those are underlings. They are paid for their job, but they don't look any further. They're expendable."

Just at that moment, a man stepped up in front of Lady Une. He was forced to move on the side as she didn't stop walking.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but we cannot hack into the Winner database anymore. The layout has been changed in two days, and the passwords …"

Without even slowing down, Une took out one of her guns and shot the man straight between the eyes. There was a deadly silence as the shot rang trough the hanger and the men around watched their comrade fall.

"I don't give a shit about you being sorry", Lady Une said quietly, putting her gun back in her waist holster. "Come back when you've got something interesting to say."

She looked around and saw everyone watching her. A cold gleam passed in the brown eyes.

"Well, what do you think you're doing, people ? Get to work ! And have someone remove this !", she added, kicking the corpse.

She kept on walking, and Zechs had to run to catch up with her. It took all of his willpower not to throw up on the spot, and he avoided looking back to the corpse.

'God, I'm stuck with the greatest psycho of the known universe ! Even Yuy wouldn't do that !'

"Uh, Une ? It's an army you have here.", he said once he trusted his voice not to shake.

"Exactly. An army. It's a war, Zechs. I thought Treize-sama had explained it to you."

"Not quite, actually, or maybe I didn't understand. Why … Why do you need so much people ?"

The Lady opened a door to private quarters and gestured to him to sit down. In Zechs' humble opinion, it was a very bad idea, but he had to act as if he was her subordinate, sent here by their boss to do whatever she would ask of him.

"Mostly for diversion", she eventually answered, looking out in to the hanger. "I have designed a strategy to attack during the press conference if it doesn't turn out the way Treize-sama wants it to. There will be a crowd of journalists, the whole Winner security service, probably Yuy and I don't know who else. I need people to hold them back in case we have to run."

"You mean they're here to die instead of you."

"That's the idea", Lady Une said with a cold smile. "Instead of you as well. You'll be with me. They have orders to shoot anyone in their way but Winner and Yuy. Those two are mine."

"Oh. Good."

'That was probably the stupidest thing you could say', Zechs scowled at himself internally. 'Oh, and let's not forget the fact she hates me. I need to work out something so that I don't end up killed before I decide to drop the act. Hey, here's the perfect idea …'

"Lady Une ? I have a message for you from Treize", he said, getting up.

Lady Une's face lightened.

"A message ? For me ? What did he say ?"

'Got you', Zechs thought, smiling inside. 'After that, you'll want to have me around a little longer.'

"He said … he said to tell you to stay safe, Lady. He said he did not want his best soldier to get hurt."

This seemed to put Lady Une in a state of merriment that was almost comical to behold. Her cheeks had reddened a bit and she was now looking at Zechs as if he was an angel coming to bring her God's words. Zechs bit his bottom lip so as not to laugh.

"Treize-sama", Lady Une sighed. "How considerate of you … Thank you, Zechs. Thank you very much. I'll show you your quarters. Is there anything you need ?"

"Actually … I wondered if it was okay for me to go out for a walk. I spent the last hours in a shuttle, and I could use it. Moreover, I've never been on L4 long enough to visit it, so …"

'There, that's perfect. I've been asked to come kill someone and I want to go site-seeing first. Not even I would believe it …'

"Whatever you want, Zechs. Feel free to do as you wish. The press conference is supposed to take place after the board reunion anyway, and no date has been decided yet."

"Good. I do hope I will be of help, Lady. I didn't really understand why you asked for my presence. I am far from having any kind of reputation that could speak for me, after all."

"Treize-sama recommended you, and that's enough. And I've seen you shooting, you're maybe not a crack shot, but you can handle your part. All you will have to do is cover me, and I trust you for it."

'Gee, did I say the magic word or what ?', Zechs wondered.

O.O.O.O.O

He was out ten minutes later, losing himself in the crowd of a market. He kind of stood out in the crowd, his very pale hair and skin contrasting with the darker tones of the people around, but no one did anything more than shoot him a curious look before going back to their business. Taking out his secure cell phone, Zechs sent his coordinates to Noin. She would have to make sure her informant could fetch the files now, or he wasn't sure he could find another time to sneak out unnoticed.

It took only five other minutes for the informant to contact him. A buzz indicated him he had received a message. It was very short. 'Meet you in fifteen minutes in the alley at the end of the market. Wing.'

Zechs began to make his way through the crowd, his high stature allowing him to pinpoint where exactly he was going. But his progress was slowed down by the sea of people who seemed to have decided to go the other way just to make it more difficult for him. It finally took him more than twenty minutes to reach the end of the market, and another five to locate the small alley.

It was dark and damp, and eerily silent. Nothing seemed to be moving, and yet Zechs had the strange feeling he was being observed. He felt nervous, and wondered if he had not walked right into a trap. Which was ridiculous, unless Une knew how to hack the GSA secure communication system, could use Noin's ID number and knew the name of the newest informant in the network.

He jumped when a slightly nasal voice suddenly spoke from behind him.

"You're late."

'I know that voice', Zechs thought immediately, 'but it just can't be …'

A shadow seemed to come out of the wall as Wing walked out of the corner he had been in, revealing his face in the dim light of the alley. Zechs stared incredulously at the person in front of him, and idly wondered what way he would choose to crucify Lucrezia and Sally.

"That's YOU ?"