Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Main Entry: 2solo
Function: adverb
without a companion ALONE fly solo

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"Well, well, well. Look at that. The cat came back, and he brought himself a friend."

Duo turned away from the behemoth named Bruno, and looked at the figure in the light, who had spoken in a silky, familiar voice. His golden eyes were dull compared with the sunlight behind them, but Duo knew how they could flash with violence or with lust, given the right incentive. His hair had grown longer: the honey colored hair was long enough to go past his shoulders, but strands of bangs remained, hanging into his eyes and covering his ears. The smile on his face was forced and unnatural, strange on the boy who had taught Duo how to laugh.

Tossing his hair over his shoulders, Solo walked straight up to Duo, and looked deep into his eyes. His smile and face faded into melancholy shadows of themselves. As he stared at the yellow eyes, Duo had a feeling of déjà vu. But things were different. There should have been rain. Snapping out of this odd moment, Duo locked eyes with Solo and took a step back, establishing his feelings towards his former lover.

Solo's sad, calm face broke out into a grin.

"So, have you come to take up my little offer?" Solo reached out to touch Duo's face, but the smaller boy slapped the hand away. The entire gang laughed at the obvious rejection, but was silenced by a steely glance from their leader.

"Come on," Heero turned around and began to walk out the door, but a muscular arm was thrust between him and the flap. Solo leaned against the door frame, and propped his leg up on the other side. He stared at the two of them, his eyes eventually resting on Heero's.

"So why are you two here on my colony?"

The green haired woman was standing opposite to Solo and piped in, "The colony ain't yours sugar," before flopping down onto the nearby couch. The expression she had formed showed that this was the kind of thing she'd like to watch.

"That isn't the point right now Trish," Solo grinned to his younger charge, "The point is why these two soldier boys are here in my place. And I DO own this place."

The girl muttered something with a small smile that Solo didn't see. He had taken a step towards Heero and Duo, filling in the last spot in order to have them completely surrounded. Duo rolled his eyes and figured that this wasn't going to be a fun way to begin their mission…er, assignment.

"Look, Solo, just let us out of here, all right? We're not here to start trouble with you."

"You know shorty, this can be easy or this can be hard," reaching his hand into the right sleeve of his jacket, Solo pulled out a throwing knife, his favorite kind. It was about five or six inches long and incredibly sharp. It must have been fairly new, since Solo's weaponry usually had a lot of wear and tear.

There was another of those soft clicks that Duo had gotten accustomed to over the past years of his life as Heero raised his gun and pointed it directly at Solo's forehead. The older boy just looked back at him, arching an eyebrow and grinning.

"Is someone gonna tell him?" The red head had piped up and looked around the room nervously.

"Ryan's gotta good point," Trish nodded sagaciously from the couch which had been left with only one rickety leg.

"Heero, put the gun down," Solo said in a patronizing voice. Instead of following the advice, he seemed to grip onto his gun even harder, until a hand from behind him reached over and lowered the weapon.

"Guns are dangerous on L2, Heero. They're illegal because a shot through any part of the colony could kill everyone. The walls of this colony haven't been replaced since it was made. They're old as the hills," Duo said as he lowered the gun.

"Only the people who are in control here on L2 can get themselves guns and ammo," Solo slipped the knife smoothly back into the sheath on his wrist.

"Would dat be you, considerin you own de place?" A voice snapped from the musty old piece of furniture.

Solo just glared at the flamboyant girl.

Heero returned his pistol to his bag, and crossed his arms over his chest, staring down the calm gold eyes of the man in front of him. Duo recognized a stalemate when he saw one and decided to end it as soon as he could, his entire point being to get away from Solo as fast as possible.

"We're here on an assignment," Duo walked over towards the small dark haired girl. Trish flew out of the couch and stood in front of her, holding her arms outstretched so that she was between the small girl and Duo.

"I'm not gonna hurt her."

Turning to the small girl, Duo squatted down until he was eye level with her.

"Can I have my wallet back for a second?" He said to the small girl. She shot her dark eyes towards Solo, who gave her a small nod. She held out the worn brown wallet and Duo walked back to Solo, flipping it open to his Preventer's badge.

"Ah. A copper," Solo put on his worst gangster accent and winked at Duo.

"Yeah. So, if you'd just get out of our way…" Duo stepped forward but was met with a strong hand on his chest. He rolled his eyes at the innocent gesture, but knew it was just so Solo would have an excuse to touch him without losing a limb.

"If you're gonna be here on L2, I insist you stay here with the gang."

"No thanks," Duo pushed forward but Solo stood strong. He looked up into the taller man's eyes and tried to show him that there was nothing between them. He was over him.

"Well, then I have to at least offer you some protection. The whole gang'll look out for you, keep your noses outta trouble while you're here."

Duo raised an eyebrow. Before his mind could jump straight to the inevitable strings attached to Solo's oh-so generous offer, Heero beat him to it.

"What's the catch?"

Solo looked at Heero with a hint of anger in his honeyed eyes, but turned back to the question at hand just as quickly.

"All I ask in return is one teensy weensy thing."

Duo didn't know that his ex-lover's voice could get quite that high and annoying…but apparently it did.

"What?" Heero barked out like an order, but Solo's hungry eyes stayed focused on Duo.

"A kiss."

The red headed boy Ryan snorted and began to walk away, mumbling something about their leader being a "bloody hopeless romantic". Trish sighed and threw herself back down to the couch, the small dark haired girl following her. Bruno never moved.

Heero was about to reach back for his gun when he saw Duo step forward, so that he and Solo were face to face. Duo's lips were level with Solo's chin, and his eyes stared up at the other man's.

"Fine. Just one kiss."

Heero's eyes widened the slightest fraction and his eyebrow ticked angrily at how easily Duo had come to that decision. Although he wouldn't admit it, Heero knew they would need an insider's help on this mission. He just didn't want this particular insider.

Solo placed his hand on Duo's shoulder, flicking his glance to Heero cautiously, making sure that this wasn't a breach on their deal. Then he leaned over that small gap and pressed his lips to Duo's. Everything that had happened two years before flashed into Duo's mind, and he didn't jerk away as he had planned.

Rushing things along, never missing an opportunity, Solo forced his tongue into Duo's mouth and enjoyed the brief moment before he began to struggle. Then he felt something cold against the side of his head and pulled away, watching as Duo's eyes opened up, still glazed over from the kiss.

"That was no damn little kiss."

Solo smirked and turned his head so that the barrel of Heero's gun was directly between his eyes; challenging him to just pull the trigger, as Solo knew he was dying to do.

A punch to the gang leader's arm caused the two men to again break off their battle of wills.

"Sorry kid, I couldn't help myself," Solo playfully rubbed at his arm and stepped out of the way of the two Preventers.

"Yeah, whatever," Duo muttered and began to walk out of the door, when Solo's voice stopped him again.

"Have I gone so far that you won't do me the pleasure of letting me know what we simple people of L2 have done to deserve a visit from two Preventers?"

Heero acted as if the Solo had said nothing and tried to push Duo forward, but the longhaired boy didn't budge. Spinning on his heel, Duo brought his face close to Heero's and lowered his voice so that the others in the room couldn't hear what he was going to say. His cobalt eyed partner was expecting an apology or an assurance of his love. He got neither.

"He knows all the lowlife scum on this colony, and where they are. What if we use him, let him help us out? Then we can get out of here faster."

"What?" For a second, Heero was less emotionless than usual.

"It's going to be nearly impossible on our own. He might even know who did it already."

Duo's eyes pleaded as he whispered, so close to his lover's face that Heero could feel every breath he took.

"Fine. But if he tries anything, I will kill him."

Duo nodded and gave a small smile before walking past Heero and surveying the lobby of the apartment. The entire group followed him, but he seemed unperturbed by their impatience.

"Well? What was your little pow-wow there about?" The tall blond tapped his foot impatiently.

"Solo, have you heard of any mysterious muggings on L2?"

"Needle in a haystack, shorty."

"Okay, how about ones involving numbers?"

Trish coughed in surprise. Everyone turned to look at her except Ryan who was sitting on the staircase, his legs through the bars. His attention seemed to have been caught by this sentence as well.

"Yeah. If we're talking about the same guy then I've heard stories about him," Solo shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket and leaned against the wall, a few feet away from where Heero was still standing in front of the door flap.

"The only specifics we have on this assignment are that there is a man going around raping girls and mugging men on L2. He leaves his calling card by carving a number in their backs with a knife. The attacks began about 20 years ago, according to L2 police records, but the police were always too busy with other things to hunt down a man who had evaded them so often. The first time he attacked, he left the number 1. Since then it's been assumed that he leaves the next number on the next victim," Duo said.

"So if our cops never cared before, why'd they call you two in?"

"Well most of the recent attacks were never called in. Except for one, about two weeks ago. A man was found with the number 47 cut into his back, and some friends of his called it in. Our chief happened to come across the article, and when he saw how long this case had been going on, he sent us straight here."

For the first time, Heero spoke up. "But the problem is that it was an anonymous tip off. We have no names, and no leads."

"Haha. So you two are pretty much screwed and stranded?" Solo snorted at them from the wall. A bit of the life had come back to his calm gold eyes, "Alrighty then. You have me and all my resources at your disposal. No sense in having murderers running amock on my colony…except for me of course," he grinned rakishly at his gang and they laughed in agreement.

Heero raised an angry eyebrow at Duo and he took the hint, realizing that Heero was ready to leave. Reaching into his wallet, Duo pulled out a hundred dollar bill he still happened to have on him. With some quick work of his hands, he folded it into a paper airplane. As he picked up his bag, Duo turned around and sent the plane sailing across the room, to the small girl who leapt up and caught it. She finally smiled to him, and Duo felt that they had reached a truce.

"We'll come by here tomorrow morning then start looking for our suspect," Duo called out.

Solo nodded and turned away before Duo had even finished leaving, ascending the staircase on feet that were light from habit, always fleeing death.

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"Well, it ain't home," Duo dropped his bag on one of the small beds in the hotel. Heero turned and locked the deadbolt on the door, not even looking as he tossed his bag over his shoulder. There was a thud.

"Ouch," Duo whispered half heartedly as he rubbed his head. If nothing else, his lover had killer aim.

With only two strides, Heero crossed their entire room. Their one large window faced the western side of the colony, and the sun was blazing through, still at least an hour away from setting.

With a swishing noise he quickly shut the curtains, and everything in the room took on gray hues.

"So, where do we go tomorrow?" Duo sat up on the bed, blinking his eyes to try and adjust them to the dim light. He could see as Heero's figure approached, and leaned across the bed.

Duo didn't seem to care too much that he didn't get an answer, as Heero brought their lips together in a soft kiss. He half crawled onto the bed, pushing Duo down below him. His kisses went up Duo's jaw, and he began to lick and suck on Duo's earlobe, but he stopped when he felt Duo's jaw move against his face.

Pulling back Heero was met with a view of all of Duo's white teeth, in a yawn that looked painfully wide. He rolled over and Duo curled up against him, his hands trying to grasp at Heero's tight shirt.

"Tired?"

Duo nodded. "Jet—"another yawn broke through, "lag."

"Go to sleep," Heero said. With a kiss on his forehead, Duo fell asleep.

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Okay, I don't want to seem like all I care about is reviews, but please guys. If you read a chapter here, even if you already reviewed or have nothing interesting to say, just leave a review. Just so I know if anyone is reading this and its worth continuing. If you guys get to 10 reviews I'll post the next chapter, its ready to go. Oh, and from now on there will be something at the beginning of each chapter, song lyrics, quotes etc. that I think are good for the fic. They're short, I hope you guys will like most of them.

Responses:

Ashley---Yay for being the first review. I'm glad you are excited about it, and sorry for the long update. I was kinda holding out for more reviews, but oh well. If I don't get 10 for the next one I'll just give up on getting reviews for this poor fic.

Trowa no Miko---Ah yes, you are more familiar with this fic than anyone else. I'm still changing things as I upload these chapters though, I can't seem to be happy with this thing until right before I post it. Anyway, hopefully you'll love the later chapters, which I'm writing right now.