Chapter Three, Chancing Time

Heero and Duo both messed and fiddled with their cumbersome ties, Duo gagging and making complaints under his breath while they stood at attention in their official uniforms, not to easier to wear (and much more comfortable) field uniforms they wore.

So, here they were—at a big party with other officers who showed great courage as they were going to accept their awards. The people from the elevator saw th two officers and smiled, some offering waves. Duo would have happily waved back at them, but attention was required or Zechs would have his head.

"For showing great courage and bravery in a dire situation involving people's lives, Duo Maxwell." He stepped forward and turned, walking over to the speaker to accept his award.

He bent his neck, letting the person place the metal around his neck before bouncing back to his spot.

As the speaker was reading off what Heero had done, Duo whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "There giving you a metal for shooting me." Heero gave him a wicked grin as he walked forward upon hearing his name.

Applause erupted in the room as he inclined his head to him, going back to his spot next to his partner as the two of them waited for the ceremony to complete itself.

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"Ah," Duo let out the relaxed breath he was holding, "This is the life." Heero snorted as he took another swig of his alcohol.

"What?" Duo grinned evilly. "Even we deserve some livin' ever now and then."

"Yes, drinking alcohol illegally is considered living."

Laughing, Duo clapped his friend on the shoulder with a little too much more force than needed, "You need to find yourself a girl, bud!"

Zechs walked over to the duo, pun not intended, with a crowd of other Preventer's behind him with Lucrezia by his side and Treize with Une by her own.

"Ah!" Duo leaned forward in his seat, "Wu has a girl?" The Chinese man blushed and Sally returned the grin that Duo gave the two of them. He muttered something under his breath and Heero shook his head.

"Looks like Hee-chan's the only one left without a girl."

Heero took another drink from his beer and growled, "I have no time for a woman in my life."

"Yuy, are you forgetting how old you are?" Zechs said with a heavy sigh as he fingered his temple to try and relieve the pressure of stress that alcohol would certainly get rid of in no time.

"How old is he?" Une questioned, arm wrapped around Treize's waist and his around hers as well.

Laughing, the ginger haired man replied, "He's quite young actually—fifteen." Sally coughed on the glass of wine she was holding, spitting it's contents out.

"He shouldn't even be out of high school yet!" Heero shot Noin a cold glare and she stared at him in shock, the repeat of Treize's words spinning around like a broken record in his mind.

"How old did you think I was, onna?" Sally stumbled away from Wufei in shock as he crossed his arms and turned his head away from her with a snort. "Maxwell is the same age as well."

"You're not even old enough to be drinking!" Noin protested and Zechs looked at his soon-to-be wife who looked up at him with a look that said, 'stop them or else!'

"I can hold my liquor better than you." Noin jerked her head back around sharply, 'What?' was her response as she narrowed her eyes at the challenge.

"You heard him." Duo lazily said as he leaned back in his stool to lean against the counter as he waited for the dark-haired woman to accept the challenge. This was going to be fun indeed.

"I challenge you then!" If there was one thing she knew from working with a crazy bunch of alcoholics at work was that you learned to hold your alcohol and Noin considered herself fairly good at stuff like that.

"Fine." Heero looked up and Zechs looked about to protest but the looks Duo and Heero shot him silenced him. He sighed; his Noin would have to learn her lesson the hard way…

TBC

Author's note:

:Sigh:

Even shorter than the last… I feel guilty for how it went from so many pages to so few… Please forgive me, I'll try and make the next chapter as long as I can while I have the little adrenaline rush that I'm on.

Thanks to everyone for the reviews! XD

Love, Red Tail