"No." Quatre all but shouted while rubbing at his temple. Talking to this man was giving him a headache. "For the hundredth time. I. Will. Not. Gamble. Gambling. Is. Bad." he spoke slowly with an emphasizing authority to each word. As though he were speaking to a retarded child with behavior issues. The man didn't seem to notice the arabian's tone of voice however. In fact it would appear that he didn't even hear what the blonde was saying.

"Yes." The casino owner waved off as if Quatre's words were meaningless "You've said that before. But you've yet to tell me why."

"It's wrong."

"Mr. Winner, can you think of any better way for someone as rich as you to gain even more money?"

"Yes. By not gambling." he answered dryly. He was beginning to get desperate to get this man away from him. He was trying not to show it, that would be rude. Right now he wanted nothing more than to go find his friends. None of them were the gambling type. Heero made bets when he was 100 certain he would win and Duo played poker. Of course he was convinced that the ex-pilot of deathscythe had never played an honest game of poker, he was exceptionally gifted at cheating.

"Let me explain something to you. Lets say you bet, I don't know, say 10,000 dollars. If you lose, no big deal, you have millions in the bank. But if you win, guess what you've got. More money." the balding man said wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

The young billionaire snorted "And what exactly are the odds of me winning." he asked already knowing they were incredibly slim.

The man shrugged nonchalantly "I don't know my self, never trust calculations. But I'd wager with a name like winner they'd be pretty high." he said in what he probably thought was a convincing way. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't.

Quatre smiled "Well as good as that sounds. I really shouldn't gamble. I've never felt the need to do so before, so why start now? Besides, its bad business. If you'll excuse me, I have to go now." He said quickly moving away before the man could protest. Unfortunately he wasn't fast enough and the man caught him by the arm.

"Wait, Mr. Winner, Please. Just once. Play the quarter machine just once. I'll even provide you with the quarter." he said offering the shinny quarter

Quatre sighed "If I do this, will you stop bothering me?" he asked with a slight glare.

"Yes of course." The man said grinning happily as the arabian snatched the quarter out of his hand and marched purposefully over to a slot machine. He inserted the quarter and pulled the lever, unaware that the casino owner was watching him like some kind of predator. The little pictures spun and Quatre was shocked to find that when they had stopped he had won a dollar. Eyes wide he took the coins and stared at them in his hand. He'd always heard that winning anything was rare. And here he had four times as much money as he started with. "Keep those quarters, Mr. Winner. Have a good evening." the man said happily before walking away and informing an employee to keep an eye on Mr. Winner.

Quatre waited until the man had left seeing range and turned back to the machine. Before he knew it he was feeding the quarters he had won back into the one armed bandit. He didn't look at his watch, but if he had it would have read 6:01

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

He felt a strong hand rest on his shoulder "Excuse me, Sir, We'd like to speak to you a moment." a voice behind him said. He turned to see the voice and hand belonged to a man in a suit. A second man stood next to him and flashed a badge so quickly that not even the perfect soldier was able to get a good look at it. As far as he knew it came out of a cereal box.

He regarded them with an uninterested stare "Why."

"We have reason to believe that you have been counting cards. Now if you would come with us a moment this shouldn't take long." the second man said motioning for Heero to walk ahead of him.

Heero sent both of them a death glare "This better not take long." he said glancing at his watch which read 6:07.

"Well that all depends on whether or not you are guilty. Doesn't it?" the first man asked pushing the japanese man slightly in the direction they wanted him to walk.

"A bit too serious about your job, aren't you? Tell me, did either of you ever work for OZ?" he asked humorlessly as he allowed himself to be led away.

"What?" one of the men asked confused.

"Never mind. Can we hurry?" He asked glaring at them over his shoulder "I have somewhere to be in less than an hour."

"Whatever."

The tone of the mans voice irked him beyond belief. He chose not to point out that he could most likely kill him in only seconds and be gone before anyone noticed. That might get him in trouble.

OXOXOXOXOXOXO

"I've changed my mind." the raven haired man stated quickly "This is dishonorable and incase you have overlooked this fact, allow me to inform you; We could be fired from the preventers if we get caught."

"What do you mean could be? I'm pretty sure that if we get caught we will be." Duo said looking far to amused for his own good. "You can't back out on me now, we've gone to far. And you promised. You can't go back on your word that would be even more dishonorable"

"I promised nothing." Wufei said with a glare.

"Aw, come on 'Fei. We're doing a Robin Hood thing here. Very honorable and all. We are serving justice!"

"Robbing a machine hardly counts as 'serving justice' and... Wait a minute! What makes you think that by bringing up justice I'll do whatever your supporting?" the asian man asked narrowing his eyes.

"Well.. What makes you think I think that?"

"Last month when we were on assignment on L4 you used justice as an excuse when trying to convince me to let you go beat that one idiot up."

"So, thats only twice."

"There've been other times."

"Well it just seemed that it was something you were passionate about. And well.. you use my convictions against me!"

"I'm not talking to you anymore." Wufei said turning away.

"Hypocrite."

"Idiot... Don't stick your tongue out at me! Aren't you a little old for that?"

"Maybe. But I don't care. Your mean."

"I'm not mean."

"Yes you are."

"Why?"

"Because you promised me, then you took it back, then you started being a hypocrite... oh excuse me, you've always been one, then you called me an idiot." Duo said pouting.

"Maxwell, don't pout." Wufei said sounding slightly deflated "I'm sorry I called you an idiot."

"So you'll help me?" the braided man asked happily.

"No." Wufei said watching in amazement as Duo went from grinning to pouting complete with puppy dog eyes.

"Please 'Fei? I'll love you forever." Duo said his eyes wide and pleading. Wufei sighed.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want you to 'love me forever'?"

The american blinked "Then what do you want?"

"Nothing."

"So are you going to help me?"

"Yes."

"Great. You remember the plan?"

"Yes."

"Good. Because there they are." the great destroyer said with a grin nodding towards two men who had one Heero Yuy in their custody.

"You do know he is going to murder you when he finds out you turned him in." the chinese man pointed out hiding a grin.

"Only if he finds out."

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Trowa?"

"Yes Catherine?"

"Um.. I was just thinking.."

"About what?" The tall man asked turning his eyes on his sister, he had picked up a worried tone to her voice.

"Well, you'll probably think I'm just being silly, but your friends are out wondering about the casino, unsupervised."

Trowa laughed at this "They hardly need to be supervised, they are grown men. They were gundam pilots. They don't gamble. There is no reason to worry."

"If you say so Trowa." She said seeming to be put at ease by his words but now he was worried. Were his friends really as capable and mature as he thought they were?

-------------------

TBC

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