Unsinkable

Chapter 2

Amazed Duo walked throughout the ship. The beauty was stunning. Since he was in second class, he was also allowed to walk through the first class corridors, lightened by gold chandeliers and the floors covered with Persian carpets. The doors to the rooms had golden handles and locks and once in a while he would encounter a first class lady, dressed in her best as she headed for the dining room to have lunch.

But none of the beauty on the inside could compete with that on the outside. He walked over the deck and just walking over the expensive light coloured wood made him feel richer then he ever could be. The pure feel of luxury engulfed him. He walked to the very front tip of the immense ship, having to step over anchor chains, links the size of his torso, to get there. He grabbed the rope, that stretched from the nose of the ship to the first brass chimney, for support as he stood on the lowest bar of the railing, looking down at the water. As he turned around, and got a full vision of the front of the ship, seeing the shore slowly disappear behind it, he could feel it. For the first time he could feel how it was to be an American. He could feel Freedom. He was looking forward to sleep on the fresh beds tonight that had never been slept before. Everything on this ship was so new it felt like it was especially made for him, just for him.

He couldn't count the time he had spent there, just enjoying the feel of the wind playing with his hair and caressing his cheeks when he reminded himself that he had a job to do. There was reason to his stay here on this magic ship.

Sighing he let go of the railing and jumped over the anchor chain again, returning to his room to retrieve his partner in crime: His brown leather bag. Normally, when he carried this bag and walked the dirty streets of Britain, he felt better wearing this bag. But as he held it now, on this ship, it made him feel dirty. Carrying around this filthy brown bag sucked up all the feeling of richness. But then again, maybe it was better this way, he should stay grounded, because once this trip was over this feeling would be gone as well. He should not get to attached to it.

He walked over the deck, from the front to the back, but was getting impatient. There weren't many people, just a few couples now and then, but nothing like the crowded streets he called his office. It was impossible to steal and not getting caught, there were crewmembers every where. From waiters serving the high class their drinks, to the captain and other man in charge of this ship striding over the deck. This was not going to work!

Angry and empty handed he returned to his room and threw the bag against the wall with all his might. He needed to find a place, crowded with rich people. Where? He immediately thought of the dining room, but he doubted anyone would let him there wearing this clothing. He looked down at his brown simple pants and white button-up shirt, wearing over that a dirty brown jacket. To top that he would stand out being alone in that room. No, the dining room was no option.

He crumbled. Hardy had thought of everything but that! He needed to find the senile man, but that was nearly impossible. He didn't know in which room he stayed and they were supposed to not know each other.

Sighing he let himself fall down onto the bed, he was almost asleep when suddenly a trumpet announced dinner. He flew up, startled and looked around already yelling: 'It wasn't me!' He frowned when he saw he was simply in his room, alone and all they did was announce dinner on the deck. He laughed sheepishly, now he thought of it, he was actually quite hungry. He pushed himself off the bed and went to the green bag Hardy gave him. He dug in, hoping to find some clean clothes so that he could go to the second class restaurant. But when he encountered the clothes, he got a better idea.

Since he had explored the entire ship this afternoon, he had no trouble finding the dining room. But he took a slight detour, just to get the rich feel again, it would allow him to play his role even better. People, dressed like him and going in the same direction, nodded friendly at him, smiling.

On his way he met the captain, who took his wife with him on his last sail across the Atlantic. For a woman of her age he found she was very attractive. He grabbed her fragile hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing it gently while looking flirtatiously into her eyes. He had seen other men do it and she didn't object, so he guessed it was okay. When they said their goodbyes they went separate ways. Duo grinned and lifted up his right hand he immediately put in the pocket of his jacket after letting go of her hand. He opened his palm and grinned, seeing the blue sapphire ring which he stole right off her finger without her noticing it. He looked over his shoulder and saw another man kissing her hand, even now she still didn't see the heavy ring was missing from he finger.

Smiling, satisfied, he put the ring in a secret pocket on the inside of his jacket. Hardy did everything to make things easy and invisible.

He neared the door that let to the main dining hall and when he reached them two servants, clad in tuxedo's, smiled, slightly bowed for him and opened the door. I unison they said: 'Welcome sir.'

He smiled and nodded to them, walking past them, entering the main hall with the huge staircase. He closed his eyes as he let his index finger slide over the polished wood. This feeling could never be defeated, he thought as he walked down the stairs between the rich, the very rich and the richest. In the back of his head his still knew his place in society, but as he walked through a second pair of door, into the luxurious first class dining room, he decided to block that part of his mind out and just enjoy the experience.

He kissed some more hands and shook some, mingled with the people he had adored and looked up to his entire life. He felt so welcome, at first it was uncomfortable when someone asked him what he did for a living, but as he met more and more people, the 'story of his life' was more detailed and sounded as true as their stories did. Young women flocked around him, knowing that he would be a good match with his fortune and his mansion in Paris. When they heard he lived in the capital of love and romance, many women fell for him like bricks.

'France?' A wealthy Englishman asked, a glass of whiskey in his hand, his wife in the other, 'What brings you on this trip to America, wasn't France enough for you?'

The group of people surrounding him and count... what was his name again, laughed delighted, Duo himself didn't catch the joke but forced himself to smile. 'business.' He simply said, not wanting to lie to much because he was already forgetting the story he made up about how he ended up in France. He was just lucky that, since he lived in England since he was five, he could imitate the accent good enough for them to believe he was a true British and not an American simply going home. That didn't sound as interesting now as it had this afternoon.

'Ah, business as usual!' He made a toast to that. Duo just nodded and excused himself. Dinner would be served and fifteen minutes and all he had stolen was a ring. Sure Hardy expected more of him.

But he couldn't do his usual routine as none of the women carried purses and the pockets of the men were empty. The price of the dinner had been included in the ticket, so no one carried hard cash. He had to focus on the jewellery. He smiled as his eye caught a women he hadn't met before, standing in the centre of every ones attention. They laughed as she told stories. When he neared he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to rob her. She looked foreign, Asian probably, but that was not what left him in doubt. It were her cold, light blue eyes but as he took more of her in, he knew she was worth it. She wore diamonds on every finger and both her wrists. A diamond, enlaced with gold, necklace adorned her graceful neck. Her black hair was held together with a gold and diamond clip. This woman was more then overdressed, obviously intend on showing everyone that she belonged to the richest people on board, and she wanted to show them in just one night. Well, it worked. She wore a red dress, made from the finest materials that matched the gold, the diamonds and her pale skin perfectly. She was a woman of age, at least forty, but she looked more stunning then any of the women in this room and the men were practically eating out of her hand.

He wormed through the crowd surrounding her and as soon as her attention was solely fixed on her, the crowd left to adorn another rich bastard.

He bowed forward and kissed her hand. He tested the ring on her middle finger, but it wasn't loose enough to steal so he didn't try.

'Can I know the name of this stunning beauty before me?'

She fixed her cold eyes on him and he felt nervous all of a sudden, she already looked like she didn't trust him.

'Saku Yuy.' She said firmly and waited for him to introduce.

He smiled and let go of her hand 'Duo Maxwell.'

She thought for a while, her gaze turning more suspicious 'I've never heard of a Duo Maxwell.'

'I'm from France.'

'... ah.' She still had that look in her eyes, like he was a bug that needed to be squashed, quickly.

He waited anxiously for her to say something, but she just continued taking him in. When she noticed he was not going to move a muscle she turned around and called someone. She turned back to him.

'Mr Maxwell, I would like to introduce you to my son.' At that very moment a man approached them and went to stand beside Saku.

Duo tore his gaze away from her cold stare to look at the man she introduced as her son, Heero Yuy. He had to prevent himself from gasping and had to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor when he encountered two pair of cobalt eyes, staring emotionless at him. The man that had come up to them was nothing more then a mere boy, he could not be older then eighteen. He hard dark blue eyes, not cold as his the ones of his mother, but empty, or a shield that was protecting what lay behind them from the outside world. He had dark brown hair that was pushed back with the use of a lot of gel that made his hair glisten. He wasn't tall, due to his Asian traits he was a good five inches shorter then him.

Duo held out his hand and Heero grabbed it, shaking it.

'Heero Yuy.'

'Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you.'

Heero didn't respond to his friendliness, instead, he followed his mother when she turned away from him and walked off to sit at a large round table.

'Great.' He grounded out and left to find someone else to try and rob, Saku was way to suspicious. But he could not steal more then a silver watch before dinner was served. The count who's name he still could not remember invited him to sit with him and his 'friends' and their spouse. He was the topic of tonight's conversation. They asked about his business, about France, about the business he was doing in America. And about why he wasn't married, that question was favoured by the women.

'Well, I figure I am still to young and I have yet to achieve everything I want to.' He said.

'are you saying that having a wife will hinder you with that?'

He looked up from his plate at Miss Po, Sally Po, who looked at him sternly.

'You have to forgive my daughter.' The count, apparently count Po, said to him and then gave his daughter a stern and warning look.

He looked back at his plate again, at all the different forks, knives and spoons. What in the world was he going to do with all that? Was that all for him! He just used the knife and fork that looked the most like the ones he normally used.

'Mr Maxwell, may I ask in which suite you are staying?' Count Po asked, serving himself a spoonful of caviar.

'Uhmm... well...' How could he free himself from this situation! 'To be honest, I forgotten...' He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, making the others around the table laugh softly.

'There is no need to be ashamed. I can't remember the name of my suite either! We have more important things on our mind.' another old man said, raising his wine glass.

The others raised their glass as well, making a toast. Duo just simply held up his own glass and then took a tiny sip. The liquor was way to fruity for his liking. He preferred normal, cheap, beer. But other then that, the night went perfectly fine and he enjoyed listening to the tales they had to tell. Stories about countries he never knew of, people he had never seen. These people had travelled the world and they talked about it like they conquered it. They did. He sat with people who owned the world.

After dinner he was even invited to smoke cigars and drink expensive Brandy with the rich men. Leaving the women behind in the dining room, he kissed their hands one more time and was able to steal a diamond bracelet.

But as the rich men talked about their business and politics he lost track, his mind reeling to keep up, but he after a while he didn't understand what there were talking about. He blame most of it on the fact that he was from France, but their laughter filled the room when he didn't even know the simplest thing about the economy and the parliament.

'Maxwell, never in my life did I meet someone that was so oblivious to the world!' A tall blonde, Zechs Merquise, called. His long blonde hair cascaded further down as he threw his head back in laughter.

Duo felt really stupid, on the streets he was one of the smartest, since he had schooling, most pickpockets did not have that luck. But here, between highly educated men, he was a retarded fool.

At nine O'clock he was finally sick of it and the smoke started to bother him. He was not used to this heavy fog. He excused himself, standing up. 'I really enjoyed having dinner with the lots of you.'

They laughed, not used to his carefree language.

'I think I'll see you tomorrow again.'

They bid him goodbye and as soon as he turned around they forgot all about him and continued playing king of the world, fighting for dominance around the table.

He dumped his jacket and bow tie in his room and left for the upper deck. He sighed content as the clean ocean air washed the filthy smoke out of his lungs. He walked to the back of the ship. On his way he was walking behind a rich, old, couple. Stealing them was so tempting, but he thought he took enough risks on this first day and let them be.

He sat down on one of the wooden, third class, benches near the rear end of the ship. He threw his head back and gazed at the stars. He noticed a black tuxedo jacket laying beside him on the bench, sitting upright he grabbed the jacket and on impulse raided the pockets. A thick stack of money.

He ginned and quickly put it in his pocket before looking around, searching the owner of the jacket.

He spotted a lone figure, leaning his elbows on the white railing while looking down to the cold dark water, swirling due to the gigantic propellers that pushed the ship forward.

He stood up and walked towards the young man to give him back his now empty jacket. He came to stand beside him and looked down at the water.

'See anything I don't?' He jokingly asked. He looked up just to see the man standing beside him turn his head. He gasped as he recognised the young, perfect, face of the boy he had met in the dining room. Saku's son, Heero Yuy. The strands of his brown hair were freed from their gel prison and were tousled by the wind, his long bangs whipping around his face, over his amazing blue eyes.

'You again.' He snapped and reached for his jacket, but Duo was too stubborn to give up without a fight.

'Nice to see you too!' He joked, grinning like the maniac people thought he was.

Heero glared at him and yanked his jacket hard. Duo let go immediately and Heero almost lost his balance. After a while standing next to each other in complete silence Heero snapped: 'What do you want from me?'

Duo just shrugged looking into the night. The blue, dangerous, cold water reminded him of Heero's eyes. They reflected the moonlight in the very same way. He smiled and turned to look at said eyes. For some reason, he liked looking into the eyes more then he liked looking at the water. Maybe it was the beautiful face the ocean sapphires were embedded in?

'Take a picture. It will last longer.'

Duo's laughter ran across the deck. Heero just raised his eyebrow, not understanding why he was laughing. The boy suddenly shivered and he put the black jacket on, stuffing his hands into the pockets. Duo swallowed hard but invisibly.

Heero frowned and Duo suddenly felt really uncomfortable, wondering if he had noticed the absence of the money.

Heero looked up at him for a split second, then aimed his gaze at the water again, way below them.

Shit, Duo thought, had he noticed? Did he knew? There was a good chance the Marshall would bust into his room tonight to search through his belongings, searching for the stolen goods.

'Pretty amazing, don't you think?'

Heero looked up, his eyebrow raised in question. Duo just wanted to pull the boy towards him and stick his tongue down his throat, but Heero would probably not appreciate that. Homosexuality was barely known throughout the world and the ones who did know about it, despised it. No way an upper class boy like this one could be interested. But it was nice to dream.

He smiled gently. 'You know, that such a large ship is able to float...'

Heero looked away again, leaning far over the railing to look down. 'Yes.' He softly agreed.

Duo smiled and copied his actions, as soon as he did Heero straightened again. He was obviously annoyed when Duo did the same.

'Do not copy me!' He almost sounded desperate.

'Do not copy me.' Duo repeated with a grin.

'I mean it!'

'I mean it!'

Heero groaned 'You are such a child! Why can't you just leave me alone!'

Because you're god damned beautiful, Duo said to himself. If only he had the guts to speak the words out loud.

Heero returned to his spot near the railing, grabbing it with both hands again. Duo came to stood beside him, like before, but this time he didn't even tried to keep up appearances and just stared at him. His eyes followed the profile of Heero's face, from his pointed chin and nose to his bangs that never ceased their movements, dancing in the in the breezes.

Heero glanced at him 'You're so annoying.' He said, but Duo didn't believe he meant the words, theyw ere not said harshly and his eyes glistened in a friendly manner.

'I know.'

Heero smiled shyly.

'What are you thinking about?'

'Hm?'

'Each time you look at the water, you seem to sink away in your thoughts.'

Heero thought about that for a moment, looking up at the star scattered sky, then back at the hostile water. 'I feel like I want to climb over this railing... and just... jump into the ocean.'

Duo frowned, this conversation was suddenly turned from hostile into intimate. It surprised him, Heero did not look like a guy to open up quickly when he first met him. Or was that just a facade?

'Is that really your only way out?' he looked at Heero, the boy seemed to be in trance, the water seemed to have hypnotised him. The shield had left his eyes and he could see the many different emotions swirling inside the pools.

'Out of what? ...' As if the hypnotist had clicked his fingers Heero suddenly woke up, his eyes glazed over and the gentle expression on his face turned into a stern one. He tore his eyes away from the water and gave Duo a sharp look.

Mystified, Duo watched as Heero bid his farewll and left with quick strides. What in the world did just happen?

He looked at the water, as if he could find the answer to all his questions about Heero there. He fingered the money in his pocket and realised there was more to these rich people then money. But he had to remind himself that there money was all he was after.

No, Heero does not have a split personality, he just has a lot on his mind. And the inspiration for his state of trance when he looks into the water comes from me. Every time I'm on the water and I look down at it as it glistened in the sunlight I just get lost in my thoughts. Thinking over all my sins... well, that will take me a while

Maybe their 'relationship' progressed a little too fast but you have to realise that this is so-called 'Love at first sight' and they only have two days to fall madly in love with each other and have hot and dirty sex () before Titanic sinks.

Am I correct when I say that she sunk on the third day of her voyage? Please reaview, not only to answer this question but to give me a piece of your mind. You know how much I love reviews!

C.W.