Heero was smart and didn't show his face in the room until after I'd had my shower. He walked in without a word while I was pulling on my pants and sat down at his desk, powering up his laptop. Even out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that what I'd said to him had hurt what feelings he showed pretty badly; he was sitting more stiffly than normal, and just by looking I could see the muscle knots starting up in his neck. Most people wouldn't have noticed. Then again, most people didn't spend as much time with Heero as I did, or spend as much energy observing him.
I didn't say a word to him as I finished getting dressed. Mostly dressed,
that is. I was again shirtless, and I didn't feel like wearing my mission
clothes if I was going to be tramping through the streets of Tokyo to see
dear little Johannes. I grabbed my rig and gun, then fished a knife out
from under my bed and stuck it in my sock. Heero looked at me curiously,
and I flipped him off. He got the hint.
Five minutes later, I was banging on Quatre's door. He was the only one
that wore even close to my size, so I'd have to borrow from him. The door
opened a crack, revealing a brown eye instead of the expected blue; Trowa.
He opened the door the rest of the way when he saw it was just me,
albeit a half-naked just me. He was wearing his usual long-sleeved shirt
in spite of the warm night.
"Duo," he said. "What's going on?"
I grimaced. "I need to borrow another shirt from Quatre."
He raised an eyebrow delicately. "Quatre's out. Isn't it a bit late?"
"Yeah." I said. "I guess Heero didn't give you a situational update, huh?"
"No."
"Peachy. Very nice of him." I curled my lip. "Relena showed up while we were out, and he ran out on me. Shortly after, of course, we got attacked by vampires. To make a long story short, my shirt is history."
"I see." He stood aside, indicating with a sweep of his hand that I should come in. "Come for a moment."
"Look, man, I really don't want to talk about it," I said. "So can I just borrow a shirt, please?"
The look he fixed me with was much harder this time. "You're giving me a headache." Even with the non-sequitor of his words, the tone booked no argument.
The scary thing about Trowa is that you can never tell if he's speaking figuratively or not.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was inside, sitting gingerly on the edge of the desk. "Sorry," I said rather awkwardly. "We all have a pain, I guess. The name of my pain is Heero."1 I couldn't figure out why Trowa wanted to talk to me. Out of all the guys, he was the one I was the least close to. We didn't dislike each other by any stretch of the imagination, but we'd always just sort of avoided each other for whatever reason.
Trowa shut the door behind me and leaned against the wall. "Heh." He raised an eyebrow at me. "Do you think you might be taking it a little too hard?"
I slammed my hand down on the desk. How the hell could he know what really happened? But he and Heero were all buddy-buddy. I guess that sat around and were quiet at each other or something. "Yeah, you're damn straight I am. Up until now, I worked alone. Now I'm used to having backup, and what happens? The guy who's supposed to watch my back turns tail and scampers because he can't take some girl having a crush on him." I rested my head on my hands for a moment. "I'm pissed at Heero for deserting me, because I know for a fact that I wouldn't desert him like that. Even worse, I almost got myself dead because I was stupid, and it scared me. I don't like being scared."
I shut up after that and just sat, waiting for a lecture on why I should calm down and apologize, since I was being such an unreasonable ass. Instead, Trowa said nothing. When I finally chanced a glance up, he was tracing a line of the door's wood grain, a meditative look on his face.
"I think," he said, "that you're both wrong." A very small smile crept onto his lips. "You're more alike than you'd think."
I couldn't help but snort at that. "No wonder I want to kill him half the time." Somehow, that little snort lead into a chuckle, and the anger that had been seething inside me slowly relaxed. I was still pretty unhappy, but I no longer felt like ripping Heero's head off and pissing down his neck.
Trowa chuckled softly. "You'll need to resolve this soon. We can't afford for you two to be bickering."
"I know." I leaned back so I could glare at the dusty ceiling. "And I know I can't just kill him either, so I'm going to have to get over it and patch things up. Sometimes he's too damn stupid to figure it out on his own. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though."
"No," he agreed, "you don't have to, as long as you do it."
"Shit," I muttered, looking back at him. "Look, Trowa, as grateful as I am for this minor session of head shrinking, I need to go. That's why I came by. Just need a shirt so I can head out."
"Where to?" Trowa asked. He didn't feel the need to state the obvious, that I wasn't supposed to go anywhere without backup. Smart man.
"The vampires that almost killed me... one said his master was Khushrenada"
That brought my anger flaring back in a sudden rush, but it was aimed at
the right target now. Trowa's eyes narrowed slightly, and I continued,
"The fucker just tried to stab us in the back. I don't play at that. So fuck
him in the ear. I'm going to hand him over to our new friend Johannes on a
silver platter, and I'm going to do it with a song in my heart." Sure, he'd
said that if we killed him, bad things would happen, but he'd also said he
wasn't going to try to kill us if we kept quiet about him. I shouldn't have
been so surprised that a vampire was a damn liar.
Trow walked over to the closet, where he fished one of Quatre's shirts out and tossed it to me. "I'll go with you," he said.
The adrenalin filled flight with Wufei nearly a week ago had left our route pretty much etched in my mind. Some things, I do have a decent memory for. It wasn't hard to return to the lair of Johannes, a place in the theatre district that was shrouded in plastic tarps and scaffolding, in the process of being turned into God knows what. The whole way, Trowa stuck to my back like glue, looking deceptively relaxed. You had to hand it to him, he was taking the district a lot better than Wufei had.
As we approached the entrance of the theatre in progress, a familiar hulking shape dropped down from the scaffolding. Tony. He smiled at me like he was greeting a long lost friend. "Hi, Duo," he said, waving one hand. "Who's your friend?"
It was at that moment that I realized Tony was probably not the brightest LED in the control panel.
"This is my associate Trowa," I said. Might as well be polite. "Trowa, this is Tony. He's one of Johannes' monkey boys."
Tony laughed. "Not a monkey," he commented. "But anyway, nice to meet you,
Trowa. What brings you guys here today?"
"As shocking as it might seem, business," I said. "I know your boss gave me a whole week to decide what to do, but what can I say, I got it figured out a bit early, so I figured I'd come and see him now. Hope he's got some time in his busy schedule."
"Alright, let me go check," Tony said. He let himself in the front door,
its glass panes covered with strips of masking tape.
I glanced at Trowa and shrugged. "I think Tony's a bit... special," I murmured.
"I see," Trowa said.
A moment later, Tony reappeared, still giving me his toothy yet somehow innocent smile. "The boss said sure, he's got time. But you have to wait here." He pointed at Trowa. "Sorry."
Somehow, I couldn't imagine Johannes saying anything as poorly bred as 'sure'
I glanced at Trowa. "I'd be a lot more cooperative if you let me bring him
along."
"The boss said I'm not supposed to let you bring any friends." Tony shook his head, his weird eyes catching the glow of the neon around us.
Trowa shrugged after a long moment. "I suppose I don't have a choice, then." I could tell he didn't like it. Neither did I.
Tony smiled, happy we'd gotten that taken care of. "Also, the boss said that you're not supposed to have weapons with you. So you can leave them here."
That got a grimace out of me. I really did not like the idea of being separated from my weapons, but then again, I had a feeling that I didn't have much of a choice. It was either willingly disarm myself or get Tony's help. No thanks. I pulled the Browning out of my shoulder rig, double-checked it to make sure the safety was on, and handed it to Trowa. "I'll be back to get this."
Tony cocked his head to one side. "And your cross and your knives, too."
I kept my face neutral. "What makes you think I'm carrying those?"
"'Cause I'm the one that disarmed you last time." His smile turned into a full-blown grin.
Damn. I blew out a frustrated sigh before I slipped my cross over my head and tossed that to Trowa. One look at Tony told me that I really didn't want to play it innocent and pretend I had no knives, so Trowa was soon in possession of another weapon.
"Ok, disarmed and ready to go." I managed a flat smile. "Take me to your leader."
Tony grinned back at me. "Follow me, then," he said. Instead of taking me in the front door, he lead me into the alley between this theatre and the next.
I waved to Trowa before I lost sight of him completely. "Don't wait up, honey!" The remark got a snort out of Tony, which was fine with me. I knew Trowa had understood...I'd just told him to go back and gather the rest of the guys if I didn't return in what he deemed to be a reasonable amount of time.
The muscle man and I wound our way through a labyrinth of back alleys. It took a lot more effort than I'd want to admit to keep from breaking out in a cold sweat. Yeah, I knew that alleys were, by definition, pretty narrow, but the ones in Japan...well...let's just say that I wasn't quite sure how Tony was managing to not get his shoulders wedged between the walls. Maybe he'd criscoed himself or something.
Greasy muscle guy. Ew.
A large, dirty puddle and a vent belching steam later, we came to a ramp, leading up to the back of a brick building. Tony led me up the ramp without slowing down. When I grabbed the railing to swing myself on behind him, it flaked beneath my fingers, leaving streaks of red-brown rust behind. I grimaced; rust looks like dried-up blood to me. It's not a color I like.
Tony held the door open for me, then crowded me down the hall to everyone's favorite not-a-storage room. I managed to grab the doorknob a split second before he got to it. Point for me. I can open my own damn doors.
"Good evening, Mr. Maxwell."
I stopped in the doorway. Only a hand on my back prompted me to move forward enough to let Tony in. Johannes was sitting at his desk, and Angelo was in his usual place by him, but there was a small, mousy vampire sandwiched between them. On Johannes' other side, there was a vampire who had short brown hair and looked like he should have been the field goal kicker for some all-star football team. Next to him was a shorter, paler guy with carroty red hair, who wasn't a vampire but had to be something pretty darn similar, and another generic, black-haired vampire. They were all looking at me expectantly.
I really hadn't been planning on an audience.
"Introductions are due, I suppose," Johannes smiled politely. He was looking perfectly groomed, as normal. Today he was wearing a blue shirt with lace on the cuffs. "since we shall be working together." He pointed to the mousy vampire. It took me a moment to recognize him as the one that had tossed me head first into a wall a week ago. He'd looked big and bad then; right now, he just looked like a little yappy dog that had just piddled on the carpet; shaky, guilty, and waiting for the rolled-up newspaper to descend. "This is Tomas, who I am sure you still remember. He has seen the error of his ways, and is ready to apologize for his bad behavior, I believe."
Tomas winced; if he'd been human, I would have expected him to break out in a cold sweat. "Yes." he said, "I apologize. I was wrong to attack you. Please forgive me." His words didn't reach his eyes; I hadn't seen a look of hatred so clear since...well...a couple hours ago. Yessiree, it's Duo Maxwell on 'How to make friends and influence people.'
"Yeah, sure, no problem. Just a misunderstanding. Apology accepted." I muttered.
"Very good." Johannes gave me a paternal smile before indicating the dynamic duo on his right. "This is Master Harris, and his servant Feld. They have kindly joined us from America." No one made a move to introduce the vampire next to Feld. I was guessing that he was a flunky.
"Hi...nice to...meet you." I did my best to keep my face neutral. Johannes hadn't so much as blinked when he'd introduced them, but I got the distinct impression he wasn't happy about them; his voice had gone from neutral to downright chilly. I really didn't need things to get more complicated.
"The pleasure is all ours." Harris said.
"Now that we are all so nicely acquainted," Johannes leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk, "let us get down to business. Mr. Maxwell, Tony said that you had something to tell me...?"
My lips suddenly felt very dry. I really didn't want to help these guys, but on the other hand, Treize had just peed all over me in a serious way. Oh yeah, and then there was that whole school leveling thing. "If I tell you, you'll leave us out of it, right?"
"Correct."
"And the school, too."
"Correct."
"And you'll just go off and fight amongst yourselves, right?"
"Mr. Maxwell, I do not have all night. Either tell me or accept the consequences of your inaction."
"I hear you. Calm down." I blew out a sigh. "The Master of Tokyo is Treize Khushrenada."
He sat up quickly, scattering the cloisonné pens that had been lined up neatly next to his blotter. I watched one of them roll across the desk and fall over the edge. "Khushrenada." Johannes said quietly, "Do you think to toy with me?"
I stared at him dumbly for a long moment. The only way his reaction could have been any weirder was if he'd suddenly transformed himself into a singing potted plant. "What?" I finally managed.
Johannes almost visibly relaxed, throwing the conversation back on track. "You said that it is Khushrenada?"
"Yeah." I scratched my arm. I wasn't sure if it was all the vampires in one place or the fact that Johannes had his panties in a twist about something, but I felt like I had the world's worst case of static cling.
"Very interesting." He leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on his stomach. The lace on his cuffs covered everything but the tips of his fingers in a snowy pile. "Do you know where he is?"
"Not for sure," I said, feeling very uncomfortable, "but he's Oz's head honcho. How many places could he be?"
Johannes nodded. "Indeed." He lifted himself bonelessly from his chair and walked around the desk, which revealed that he was wearing skin tight black leather pants. He had pretty nice legs for a guy that had been dead for 800 years. "Thank you for your help, Mr. Maxwell. Your school is now safe." He stopped moving when he was about a foot away from me.
"Great. What about the rest of the world?" I did my best to edge back without appearing to edge back.
Johannes laughed. It was a warm, surprising sound. "That remains to be seen," he said. "I think you will agree that no battle is certain, or necessarily with end."
I nodded.
"I suppose I could always ask for further assistance." Johannes smiled. "But I think you are far more trouble than you are worth."
"So I've been told."
There was that laugh again. "You'd be best served to stay clear from us from now on if you don't wish to be involved." Johannes' hand shot out faster than I could really see; before I had a chance to react, he had pulled me toward him, his fingers worked into my hair. I started to push him away, as ineffectual as I knew that was, right when he leaned down and planted a very gentle kiss on my forehead. "Go home, Mr. Maxwell, and enjoy your vaunted neutrality." He released me so quickly that I lost my balance for a second and stumbled back, almost running into Tony.
Things were taking a sudden dive into the Twilight Zone, and I knew a dismissal when I heard one. "Thanks," I said, not sure how I meant it. Tony didn't even have to push me out the door; I was more than ready to go.
As I made my way back toward the outside, I couldn't help but think. I'd done it. I'd saved the guys and everyone in the school. All I'd had to do was rat out my worst enemy. Bonus, right?
Right?
The metal door out seemed very heavy as I pushed it open, and it left more spots of rust on my palms. All I knew, as it slammed shut behind me, was that I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd just made a very, very big mistake.
1 Yep, shameless Batman (original movie, not horrid sequels) homage.