"I looked for you everywhere.
I looked for you everywhere.
Tell me why you're here.
I came to disappear."

REM, "Disappear"

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Solo ran from his room to the next, looking for his gloves.

"Trish! If I find out you took my gloves again I'm going to rip your fucking throat out!"

"They's in your top drawer you dumbass!"

Solo ran back in his room and practically threw the top drawer out of his dresser. Sure enough, there were his ratty black fingerless gloves. He just couldn't go out and have fun without them. He'd feel naked. And that would be premature.

"Thanks!" Solo yelled down as he looked in the mirror and finished primping himself.

He slipped his two favorite knives, with their sheaths, beneath two straps of black leather he had wrapped around his forearms. They looked a bit bumpy, but he didn't intend for them to be completely concealed. He wanted everyone to know that he had them on him; it would keep most people from bothering him. Unless he wanted them to.

Glancing out the window in his room he noticed that the sun was turning a fiery orange, and nearing the horizon.

"Damn. Late again."

Meanwhile, a dozen blocks away from Solo's apartment.

Heero huffed. Duo laughed.

This would have been funnier except it had been happening for the past half an hour. The sun was gone and now the sky was starting to turn a dark blue. They continuously scanned the street, the corners, and occasionally walked around to check the alleyways. Still no Solo.

"SORRY!"

Heero flinched at the incredibly loud scream that the thin boy managed to belt out as he turned the corner and nearly ran into them. Duo looked less than entertained, but soon his jaw hung open and his eyes widened as Solo stepped under the streetlight.

His hair had been slicked back against his head, just leaving a few strands in front of his face as always. The rest was pulled back against his neck, but in a very flattering way. Instead of a shirt he wore a black leather vest, with no sleeves. It was too small for him, so it stopped just past his ribs, leaving his midriff exposed. It was halfway zipped up, bearing a fair amount of skin. His legs were covered in tight leather pants that hung on his perfect hips.

"Do you guys ever listen?" Solo shook his head back and forth and ran a leather gloved hand through his gelled hair. "I said dress sexy. Look at the two of ya."

Duo and Heero turned and looked at each other. Duo wore a midnight blue silk button up and fashionable dark jeans. Heero had on a black shirt with a black jacket overtop it. They didn't look bad at all, just by their nature they seemed to be attractive with little or no effort. But Solo knew this wouldn't do for where they were going.

Solo went up to Duo and started unbuttoning his shirt. He heard Duo gasp but paid no attention to the reaction.

"Better," Solo looked at his handiwork. The shirt hung to his sides, bearing the middle of his chest and his stomach. Duo kept shifting his eyes over to Heero, as if checking if his temper meter was getting ready to blow.

When the blond advanced on Heero, he growled out a warning.

"Solo…"

"Wolf actually," Solo unzipped Heero's jacket and didn't look into his eyes as he did so.

"What?" Both preventers said at the same time.

"When I go to this place, or turn tricks anywhere else for that matter, I go by the name Wolf. It's another of my personas."

Heero's mind was still preoccupied with the phrase "turn tricks" to stop Solo from stepping closer. He slid his hands over Heero's shoulders and pushed off his jacket. Unfortunately, his mind caught up with his body and Heero pushed Solo away from him.

After taking a few steps back, Solo regained his footing and returned, staring Heero down. His few inches of extra height was coming in very useful to Solo indeed. He reached out and started to pull up Heero's shirt.

Duo flinched as he saw Heero's fingers closing around Solo's throat. He held him so that his feet just barely grazed the ground. Bringing him closer he snarled again, lower this time.

"Omae o kuroso."

Solo just blinked at him. He felt Heero's hand pull away from his neck and rubbed it out of habit.

"What did you say?" He said, looking weirdly at Heero.

"It was in Japanese. He said he's going to kill you," Duo smiled, proud to be helpful when it came to a few of his lover's bilingual moments.

"Oh. That explains it. I only know a few things in Japanese. Onegai. Yamero ja nai. Onegai." (roughly translated to "Please. Don't stop! Please!")

Duo blushed furiously and even Heero curled up his lip at that. Solo seemed blissfully ignorant of what he had said though, and continued on his effort to make Heero presentable to the club they were heading to.

"Fine, if you don't want me to, you still have to take that shirt off. Just wear the jacket."

"Why?" Heero looked suspiciously at Solo.

"Cause otherwise you two are gonna reek of cop and ya ain't gonna be safe even with me," Solo's eyes showed that he wasn't lying. Heero looked to Duo for some sort of help, but his lover just shrugged. Something about Solo's presence seemed to have this kind of effect on Duo, making him easily swayed by Solo's opinions.

Heero angrily removed his tank top and was just as angrily handed back his jacket. He slipped it on and received an approving look from Solo.

"Okay boys, off to Cahos."

Duo sighed and made a strange wheezing sound in his throat. Heero just scowled more, and drew his jacket closer around him.

Solo slammed the door to the club called Cahos wide open and stepped inside. He tried to look cool and imposing but his look was ruined as a large drunk man grabbed him by his vest.

"Wha—" The man slammed his face against Solo and promptly fell backward onto a table, dragging Solo with him. Duo watched as Solo's limbs flailed in every direction and he eventually pried himself from the disgusting man's mouth.

"Damn. Fuck," Solo spit and wiped his mouth a few times.

"Ey…….you're…….not a woman?" The drunk man muttered from his place atop the table. His friends looked on sadly and helped him to his feet.

Solo straightened out his vest and shrugged to his companions.

"Not my best entrance, eh?"

Duo looked around Cahos and quickly decided he preferred The Draft. This place was so crowded that even standing to the side against a wall he had people constantly brushing against him. Most of the bar patrons were on the small dance floor beneath the strobe lights, grinding against each other and doing something that could barely be considered dancing. Loud rock and punk music blared from speakers at the front of the room, and Duo noticed that quite a few couples were wandering off towards a hallway that led away from the main room.

Solo caught his eyes and saw where he was looking. He leaned in close, to overcome the pounding music and yelled/whispered in Duo's ear.

"The only people going down there are those turning tricks, and those paying for them."

Solo's eyes flickered across the room, taking in the crowd and the whores he'd be competing with that night. For some reason Duo found him infinitely less attractive now as he surveyed his clientele like a predator picking out the weak and the sick.

"Wolf!" A young girl in a pink tube top and pink mini-skirt that revealed her (surprise) pink underwear waved at them. She bounced over to them and latched onto Solo's neck.

"We didn't know where you'd been? You haven't been by in far too long," She leaned up and kissed Solo on the cheek before releasing him and looking over at Duo and Heero.

"Who're your friends?"

"Just some friends. They're new. Hey, know if anybody around here has been looking for me. You know," Solo smiled his sexiest grin, "the regulars?"

"A couple of guys I know who prefer you were having drinks over there last time I saw," She pointed towards a dark corner next to the bar, away from the dance floor.

"Thanks tons."

Solo motioned to Duo and Heero and they quickly followed. Heero was beginning to feel like he and Duo were the sidekicks on this little mission, and he didn't like it.

"And what exactly are we going to do S—"

"Wolf," Solo hissed back before Heero even finished calling him the wrong name.

Before they were too close to the crowded table, Solo pulled Heero and Duo close to him. He nodded his head in the direction of the scumbags sitting with their drinks nearby.

"Don't mess with these guys. Don't give em a reason to suspect ya. And if I have to leave for any reason, just act casual. And you two damn well better stick together. You get separated in here and you're in trouble," Solo ran his hands along his gelled hair, preparing to enter the conversation of the men at the table.

"Do you think they can actually help us?" Duo yelled over the music. Solo just shrugged to him, but still looked hopeful.

"I know them and they'll tell me stuff. We can just hope they might know about this bastard," Solo walked away from them now, and the two ex-pilots sat down on bar stools, trying to look like they fit in. From where they were sitting they could see the table, and were close enough to read the lips of those facing them.

They watched Solo walk up and lean against the backs of one of the men, saying something loud that caused the entire group to break into laughter. Then he continued speaking, and Duo managed to catch the words "pictures" and "stirrin up trouble". The heads of those Solo had spoken too sadly shook back and forth. He pouted and muttered something that caused a few of the guys to grin at him again.

Heero got a sinking feeling that this entire night was going to be worthless. The scum in this bar weren't going to have any knowledge that could help them. He just knew it.

Duo on the other hand was pre-occupied with trying to read the lips of Solo and company, while warily watching a few of the bar patrons giving him seductive looks. Without thinking, Duo leaned over in his stool so that he was touching Heero's shoulder, trying to look cooler and less worried than he was actually feeling.

Movement at the table caused Heero and Duo to both look over. A girl had grabbed onto Solo's arm and was dragging him away from the table.

"Where is he going?" Heero snarled loudly in Duo's ear, trying to compensate for the blaring music.

"Or more accurately, where's he bein dragged?"

The girl made a b-line for the dance floor, with a rather unwilling Solo in tow. But he wasn't resisting her, and from the way she kept fluttering her lashes at him as they neared the dance floor, it looked as if they knew each other. When she stopped, close to the edge of the mob of dancers, she immediately pressed her back against Solo and started to dance with him.

Duo's jaw dropped as he watched Solo dance. It occurred to him that he had never seen the boy dance in the entire time they had known each other.

Now he knew why. Solo had two left feet.

He couldn't keep with the rhythm and looked all-around uncomfortable on the dance floor. He obviously didn't know the song, and had to let the girl in front of him lead him. She didn't seem terribly happy with her dance partner's inability to, well, dance, and eventually turned around, leaning up towards his face to say something to him.

Solo smiled at her and gave her a quick hug before fleeing the dance floor like a bat out of hell.

"Oh yes. He's really helpful," Heero quipped before grabbing his drink and taking a rather un-Heero-like gulp.

"At least he can talk to these people. Maybe something good will come of it," Duo matched his lover and took an equally large gulp of his own drink.

Solo had returned to his usual friends, who were all laughing at his failed adventure on the dance floor. He grinned and continued to talk to them, but Duo was having a hard time concentrating on reading Solo's lips due to the screaming that passed as music in Cahos.

When Heero looked over he saw a man who was very well dressed, with slicked back chocolate brown hair sitting at the table with Solo. He must have just sat down, he had no drink and some of the men at the table were greeting him and introducing him. His eyes never left Solo even as he spoke to the others. The ever-present gaze on him was not unnoticed by Solo. He smiled over at the newcomer and narrowed his eyes, inspecting him. The brunette seemed unfazed by this and just continued to let his eyes slowly wander across Solo's leather clad body.

Solo rose from his chair and walked over to the man, standing with one hand on his hips. He leaned down and whispered in the man's ear. The businessman nodded. Solo grinned and stood to leave along with the brunette. But his gold eyes caught Duo's watching him intently and he motioned him over.

Duo elbowed Heero and received a death glare for it.

"Solo wants us over there," Heero nodded and followed Duo to the table.

"Fellas, these are two friends of mine, Heero and Duo. They're the ones I wanted to take a couple a pictures with," The flash of a smirk in Solo's smile was all the innuendo he needed.

"They're real cute Wolf. How come you always get the good ones?" A grizzled old man said, clapping Duo on the back as he sat down.

"Talent luv. Talent."

Solo started to walk away from the table, but turned when he was about to be out of earshot, the man in the suit directly behind him.

"I'm trustin you guys can answer some of my friends' questions, alright?" With the last word Solo tossed his hand back and walked quickly across the bar, the brunette at his heels.

Duo recognized the hallway to the side of the dance floor and looked away. He preferred not to think of where that man was going with Solo. Or what they'd be doing.

The two abandoned Preventers made small talk with those around the table, easing themselves into the conversation until the others trusted them. Then Duo began to talk about the pictures, and brought up the same questions Solo had earlier.

"So you see, we don't really want anyone seeing these, um, photographs. Legal issues and all," Duo tried to smile as sleazily as he could. Most of the men nodded or chuckled, as if they had been down that road before.

"Most of the places here on L2 that'd develop your pics wouldn't call you in no matter what they saw," A younger man chimed in.

"But what if it was very illegal."

'Very illegal? Oh brilliant move Duo. You're just fitting in perfectly.'

Heero noted the faraway look in Duo's eyes as he berated himself.

A few of the men at the table gave Duo an odd look. But one just smiled secretively.

"Well, if you think it really will getcha arrested, it must be something good. Does it involve Wolf?"

"Yes."

For the first time in a while Heero added to the conversation, albeit briefly. The man who had questioned him nodded.

"I knew a guy once who did a lot of child pornography, and he just developed the pictures himself. He said that's how most of the guys in the business did it. Said it wasn't that hard."

Heero's eyes were caught by a movement out of the shadows of the back hall of the club. Solo came walking out, his hair tussled from its gelled position. More pieces of his bangs fell in front of his face, making him appear more like Solo than Wolf. He also looked tired.

"Sorry guys, I think we have to be going now," Duo smiled and shook a few hands around the table of those he had talked to longest. They all agreed that he and his quiet friend should join them more often.

"Hey Wolfie boy!"

Solo had just arrived back at the table when a shrill female voice called out to him. A girl, obviously a prostitute, was standing a few feet away. She had on a mini-skirt and high leather boots. Her makeup was far overdone, and her hair was ratty. Compared to most of the other women in the bar, and especially most of the other whores, she was ugly. Very ugly.

"So, I heard a rumor you're into masochism now," The girl walked up and slapped Solo across the face.

Duo and Heero watched the odd transaction but didn't step in to stop anything from happening. Solo turned his head back to stare the girl down, his ear red from her slap.

"What's wrong with you whore, angry that I've been takin all ya business?" Solo spoke slowly, with his words dripping anger and truth.

"Like I want your faggoty customers. Least I don't get off when someone is gutting me like a—"

Solo grabbed the girl's face in his hand and slammed her head against the floor. Her platform shoes gave her little traction and she was too thin and small to put up a fight against him anyway. Solo swung his leg over her body before sitting down on her. She made a strange gasp as the breath was knocked out of her by Solo's heavy body.

"How about you stop talking about things you don't know about, alright ya little fashion reject slut?" Solo hissed at her as he shifted his hand and used them to pin down her shoulders.

"Aww, the little masochist is hurt. Well fuck you. You shitty retard."

Solo's face remained unchanged. Duo didn't like the look on it. And people were starting to gather around. 'And we all know how much Solo loves a crowd.'

"I'm getting real tired of your potty mouth," Solo smiled sadistically. Duo worried.

"And what the fuck are you going to do about it? I hate bastards like you who—"

Again the hooker was cut off. This time Solo pried her mouth open and pulled out her tongue.

"I see you got a tongue ring. Very nice. But you know the reputation you can get for having one…" Solo gripped the slippery silver stud hard between two fingers and pulled as hard as he could.

Gasps went through the crown and people turned away. A few covered their mouths and looked as if they were about to puke.

Solo tossed the bloodied tongue ring onto the floor and stood up, his eyes flashing like the happy wolf he was. He calmly wiped the blood and saliva from his fingertips off on his pants. The girl was on the floor, doubled over and crying loudly. She also seemed to be cursing, but it was hard to tell because she had just a hole torn through her tongue.

In passing Solo grabbed both Duo and Heero by their elbows and maneuvered them towards the exit.

"I got some information, how bout you guys?" He said calmly.

"You just ripped that girl's tongue ring out!" Duo yelled in his ear. Solo was acting as if nothing had even happened.

"She deserved it. Trust me. Now did ya find anything out?"

"Some. It might be helpful," Heero said quietly. The bar was still in an uproar as the trio waltzed through the door. A few strides from the exit of Cahos, a voice called after them.

"Hey Wolf!"

Solo turned around and Heero and Duo did the same. The girl covered in pink was back again, trying to run after them. Her massive pink heels were not helping her at this.

"What's up?" He said sweetly to the young girl. Duo was still in shock from seeing Solo do something like that to the prostitute in the bar. He knew his ex was a little on the crazy side at times. But he never thought he'd sink to doing something like that.

And Duo knew the real reason he was so scared by what he had seen. Solo had loved it. Every minute from when he knew he was going to do it, to once it had been done.

"High Roller came by a few minutes ago and left a message for you while you were in the back. He's in town for a few days and wanted to see you."

"What!" Solo suddenly lost his cool façade. His eyes were wide and his jaw was hanging open a bit.

"Yeah, he told me to give you a message. He said he'll be at the usual place waiting for you," She walked up and jokingly elbowed Solo in the ribs. "You must be as good as everyone says you are."

With a wink and a wave she bounced and swayed back into the club, its hectic lights disappearing in the gloom of L2 as the door fell shut.

The three boys stood on the sidewalk, each waiting for one of the other two to make a move. Finally Duo was tired of the strained silence and asked Solo what that had been about.

"Nothing," He said tersely. All fun of the night was gone from his face. His face was downcast, and he didn't try to hide the apprehension in his eyes from Duo.

"Listen, I have to take care of this. You guys go home. I'll be back at the apartment by tomorrow afternoon. I'll help then."

"Where are you going?" Heero asked angrily as Solo stormed off. He seemed to be heading home as well.

"Out. Now if you don't mind, I suggest you two get home. Streets ain't safe ya know."

The leather-clad boy disappeared into the shadows of the alleys he called home.

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Ashley: Lemme just say right now. This fic is totally dedicated to you. Oh faithful reader/reviewer. Hopefully you like the way its going. Feel free to give me and im sometime at tmbrwolf113 if you wanna see where this story is going. (I have huge amounts of it written, just not edited yet). Thanks of the awesome compliment too by the way.