Impossible

A Gundam Wing Fan Fiction

Rambled Off by The Manwell

Book Three: PARTNERS

Heero Yuy

Have I mentioned that this is an amazingly bad idea? I'm pretty sure I had at some point... at several points, come to think of it... but, somehow, here we are anyway.

I cross the threshold into the impressive main lobby of the pharmaceutical company and take a deep, fortifying breath. I ignore Duo's presence just half a step behind me and to my left. I grudgingly have to admit he's playing his role of The Trainee really well so far. He's fairly vibrating with anticipatory energy, as if he's not only experiencing his first visit to the moon but he'd just had his first shuttle ride, as well. It's those kinds of details that I always forget and that, subsequently, ruin my disguise. Although, in this case, I get the impression that Duo's purposefully drawing attention to himself... and away from me. As a fully trained and highly dangerous Preventer agent capable of taking care of myself in virtually any combat situation, I ought to be offended.

I'm not.

I pretend to ignore the fact the Duo is quite obviously-but-not-actually giving his undivided attention to the impressive arrangement of spacescape paintings I'd admired on my initial arrival and approach the receptionist. Yet again I announce my arrival and try to look like I'm not a trained assassin.

But once Duo has decided – by some mysterious inner logic – that he's gawked at his surroundings long enough, he works his magic and manages to elicit a conversation out of the receptionist. All I have to do is feign interest in the mundane chatter. So I do.

Until: "Rupert! It's so good to see you again!"

Turning, I nod at the familiar face of Dr. Adamsson's assistant. The man who'd trailed along behind me like a lost puppy during ninety per cent of my first visit here. He concludes his approach with a hearty handshake.

"Your company said you'd had a fairly serious family emergency or something...?" he comments with a concerned frown. "Is everything all right?"

I nod easily. "Yes, everything's fine now. I apologize for the inconvenience I know I must have caused..."

"Oh, never mind that. Your company did send us a replacement, but he wasn't you, Rupert. The machines are on the verge of rioting."

I chuckle. "Hm," I tell him in a light tone, "if you're not careful, I'll get the impression that I was missed."

The assistant laughs. "Well, it wouldn't be inaccurate."

Sensing an opening in the conversation, Duo shifts beside me and I immediately move to introduce him. With a gesture towards my partner, I intone, "My assistant and current electronics engineer trainee, Felix MacGyver."

I watch as Duo leans forward, offering his hand to Adamsson's assistant and it seems to me there's something more than the garden variety, unpredictable Maxwell amusement in his eyes. It's glaringly evident to me that he's finding something about this situation to be flat-out hilarious. And I think... maybe... it might be his choice of name. I make a mental note to quiz him later on what's so damn amusing about the name Felix MacGyver. It'll make a nice distraction from my own inescapable difficulties.

"MacGyver, huh?" the assistant muses with a wide grin. "I don't suppose your family is aware of a little-known late twentieth-century television program about a man by the same name?"

Duo returns the grin and turns it up another notch toward Blinding Radiance. "Got the entire series on vid disc at home. Mandatory education in my family."

"Seems like a lot to live up to," the assistant replies as he finally starts to steer us out of the lobby. "At least MacGyver had a team of script writers and special effects experts to get him out of all those close calls..."

Duo shrugs. "Wouldn't have it any other way." And then he chuckles. "You'd be surprised how many of us went into law enforcement and the like."

I try not to tense at the fine line Duo is approaching. Ahead of me, Dr. Adamsson's assistant laughs.

"So, you must be the black sheep of the family, right?"

"Maybe," Duo drawls with a sly glance in the scientist's direction. "In any case, nobody ever suspects the techie geek guy, right?"

This is why Duo is the master of infiltration. How he can say shit like this and not totally tip off the suspect completely baffles me. Hell, I know I don't have the nerve to cooperate in, let alone instigate, a conversation like this with an individual I'm investigating undercover, but Duo does it effortlessly.

Oblivious to my partner's subtly guided influence, the assistant becomes even more talkative than I recall. Which, quite honestly, is really saying something. If I'd thought the man was indiscriminately friendly before, he's a veritable social whore in Duo's presence.

But while I'm awed by this, I'm not exactly surprised. After all, I've always known about Duo's unparalleled brilliance in being able to coax out the traits the wants from the people he interacts with.

Take me, for example. How many years had I wasted letting him goad me into nit-picking and pissing contests, half-hearted though my participation may have been.

Still, there's no debating the fact that Duo Maxwell is completely unique.

Irreplaceable.

And he's placing all of his trust in me.

Jesus, I hope I'm not going to fuck up this mission. And, listening to the echo of that thought, I almost snort out loud. Two months ago, I'd regarded this mission with necessary caution, yes, but not with abject terror. Two moths ago, it had been obvious that having the two of us on this mission would have been overkill. Two months ago, I'd willingly undertaken every aspect of the on-site investigation personally.

It's amazing what a little unpredictable and violent mental instability can do to a person's ego, isn't it?

Still, now isn't the time to brood about it. I'd managed to put a lid on those fears during the long shuttle ride and now is not the time to let them out, even for good behavior. Now is the time for me to focus on this elementary assignment. Now is the time to trust Duo to know what he's doing... even though I kind of suspect he's hoping to use this mission to show me I'm not the personification of uranium at critical mass.

Well, he's got his work cut out for him. Because no one but me can say exactly what I'm capable of. And it's not as if anyone's ever been guilty of removing my memories, so I should know. Still...

Still, I silently pray, Please, please don't try to save me from myself if I do something stupid, Duo.

But I know he will.

And it's times like these I wonder why in the hell I couldn't have sworn my fanatical devotion to someone with a modicum of common sense and an inkling of self-preservation.

Yeah... and we all know how well-known I am for doing things the easy way.