Title: Never Turn Your Back on the Sea (4?)
Section Title: Interrogation
Author: Alleyprowler
Pairings: 3x4, 2xH and 1xR
Ratings/Warnings: M for language, references to violence

Duo popped into view on the laptop screen, buttoning up a pressed dress shirt. "Hi, guys!"

"Hi, Duo," Quatre said, attempting to smile. The muscles in his cheeks felt stiff, as if they were protesting the false expression. He glanced over at Wufei and saw that he wasn't even bothering to conceal his tension.

Duo smiled back. "Something tells me this isn't a social call," he said while he fumbled for the last button at his collar.

"I wish it was," Wufei said with what sounded like genuine regret. "We just wanted to make sure you were well."

Now Duo looked positively alarmed. "What? Why wouldn't I be all right?"

"Duo, calm down," Quatre started.

Duo interrupted him. "No, hang on, you can't call me like this out of nowhere with Wufei heavily into cop mode, both of you looking like your dog just died, and jeez, Quat! What happened to your face?"

Oh, right. Since no one had commented on it, Quatre had all but forgotten that he looked like he'd been in a bar fight and lost badly. He reached up and self-consciously tried to hide that shadowy bruise that was forming on his left cheekbone. "I had an accident. Sort of. Actually, that's what we wanted to talk about..."

"When we come see you," Wufei cut in. "It's not the sort of thing I like to discuss on the phone."

Duo's face was set in a grim expression of worry. "I'm glad to see you guys anytime, you know that, but you've got me a little shaken up. Am I in some kind of trouble?"

"No, I think if there was going to be any trouble it would have happened by now," Quatre said, forcing his face into the smile he used with small children and hysterics. It was his 'all is well with the world and everything is just as it should be' smile, and Duo didn't buy it for a second.

"Oh, man, so there is trouble." Duo raked his hands through his shaggy bangs.

Quatre hated not being able to explain. "Duo, we can be there in seven or eight hours, tops, and I'm pretty sure everything will be fine until then."

Duo didn't look convinced. He kept his voice pitched softly as he said, "Guys, I know you can't tell me much, but if there's anything I can do to keep Hilde safe, you'd let me know, wouldn't you?"

Wufei nodded firmly. "Of course we would. Look, it would be best if you just went about your normal routine till we arrive. Can you do that?"

Before Duo could answer, a husky female voice bellowed from somewhere out of video range: "DUO! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"

Duo gave a genuine smile for the first time and called to his wife over his shoulder. "JUST A SEC, PEANUT! BE RIGHT THERE!" He turned back to his callers with an apologetic shrug. "It's Hilde's birthday, we were just about to go out to dinner with some of her friends. She wants to eat lobster, of all things." He shook his head in disbelief. "Why anyone would want to eat a giant insect is beyond me, but that's my Hilde-baby." He smiled sappily.

"DUO, PLEASE! I'M HUNGRY! I'M ABOUT TO FAINT OVER HERE!"

Quatre chuckled. "I suppose we ought to let you go. We'll see you in about eight hours, okay?"

Duo checked his watch. "Sure, that'll be at about two o'clock in the morning, local time."

"Don't bother meeting us, we can let ourselves in," Wufei hastened to reassure him. Quatre had some doubts. Bypassing most residential security systems would be child's play for someone with their training, but Duo was one of them and probably had enough sensors, monitors and booby-traps on his property to make sure than nothing larger than a grasshopper could get through undetected. Or unscathed.

Duo's grin seemed to confirm that. "It's okay, I'll leave the kitchen door alarm off. You'll have to pick the deadbolt, just don't break anything. You're welcome to raid the fridge and flop on the couch and watch TV. Hilde and I will be up by seven o'clock or so. Deal?"

"Sounds fine to me," Quatre said. "And make sure Hunter is tied up nice and secure, okay? I'd hate to be licked to death in the middle of the night."

Duo threw back his head and laughed heartily. Quatre would have joined in the laughter if he hadn't been pretty sure it would aggravate his growing headache, but he allowed himself to chuckle a bit. "Will do, Quatre-my-man. See you then!" The transmission cut off.

Wufei frowned as he removed the camera from his laptop and began to pack everything away. "Who, or what, is Hunter?"

"Duo and Hilde's dog. Hilde's mostly." Quatre rummaged in his pockets for his aspirin bottle. The thumping in the back of his head was making him feel dizzy and nauseated. "He's a mix between a wolfhound, a St. Bernard, a Great Dane, and a small horse."

"In other words, a big, dumb mutt."

Quatre found his aspirin and swallowed three with the last of his juice. "Yes, but he's really friendly. He loves people, although he tends to slobber a lot."

"Figures," Wufei muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Let's get back to the shuttle. It's probably not as posh as those flying hotels you're used to, but it's comfortable enough. You look like you need a nap."

Quatre cast a longing glance at the fireplace, sighed regretfully, and got up to follow Wufei out.

The Preventer's shuttle was, as promised, quite comfortable. Designed for long reconnaissance missions as well as for spatial economy, it featured two sleeping berths, a well-equipped work and recreation area with a videoscreen, a galley, and even a shower.

Quatre, hugging himself as he shivered inside his coat, walked back and forth inside the long, narrow cabin, examining nooks and crannies while Wufei spoke to the ground staff of the tiny airport.

"I don't believe it," Wufei said, throwing his headset aside in disgust.

"What's wrong?" Quatre asked, pausing in his investigation of a storage cupboard.

"They are delaying our takeoff clearance because there is a chartered craft full of schoolchildren due to arrive in twenty minutes. I told the idiot in the control tower that that was plenty of time to get out of his airspace and halfway out of the atmosphere, but he said that the pilot of the craft only has a hundred and ten hours of flying under his belt and control's not entirely certain that he has the ETA right. Or the flight path, for that matter. It's ludicrous!"

Quatre shuddered deeply, and not just because he felt chilly. "Ludicrous is right. Why would they let someone with so little experience fly a plane full of kids?"

Wufei, who had been stomping off in the direction of the head, stopped abruptly. "Oh. I didn't think of that." He turned back in Quatre's direction, eyes thoughtful. "I'm afraid I was only thinking of the delay." He gave his companion a rueful smile. "I tend to focus on the wrong things, sometimes."

"You're very goal-oriented," Quatre said diplomatically.

A snort. "You could say that. If you've finished prowling around like a cat, make yourself comfortable in one of the berths while I go wash my face." Wufei slipped the elastic from his hair and shook it loose as he walked into the head, presumably to preen, and Quatre found himself thinking that the woman who finally got through the famous Chang defenses was going to be lucky. Very lucky indeed.

The sleeping berths were little more than wide, padded benches with nylon webbing that could be secured over the sleeper to keep him more-or-less in place in zero gravity, but they seemed as luxurious as a feather bed to Quatre. He kicked off his shoes and stretched out fully-dressed on his back, sighing. His headache had died down to a dull, bearable throb, and the hot lunch he'd eaten was making him feel sleepy.

Quatre didn't realize he had been drifting off until he felt a slight breeze on his face and an even slighter weight settling over his body. His eyes popped open in alarm and he pulled himself up into a half-reclining position. "What the--oh. Thanks, Wufei."

Wufei was smirking. He plucked at the blanket he'd just thrown over Quatre, adjusting it slightly over his feet. "It's good to see your reflexes are still sharp."

"I never was a heavy sleeper. It's a good thing Trowa doesn't snore." Quatre added with a hint of slyness.

"Right." Wufei cleared his throat uncomfortably, but rallied and changed the subject. "Do you want some cider? It's instant, but it's hot and it's pretty good."

"Sounds wonderful."

Wufei made himself busy in the galley area while Quatre lay back and stared at the ceiling. For a long time, he'd thought that Wufei had objected to his and Trowa's relationship. Every time either one of them had made an even remotely sexual comment or showed the barest hint of physical affection, Wufei would react with embarrassment bordering on panic. It had made Quatre feel sad, but then he wasn't exactly a stranger to disapproval. He had just about resigned himself to acting like a monk in front of Wufei when he had noticed that any mention of human intimacy brought about that same discomfort, and after an evening of careful prodding and strategic application of alcohol, Quatre had learned that Wufei was just as sexual as the next guy, but was horribly shy about it. "Gonna have to fix that," Quatre muttered sleepily to himself.

"What was that?"

Quatre blinked and noticed that Wufei was standing in front of him, holding out a paper cup of something that steamed. "Oh. I was thinking about the leaky faucet in the upstairs bathroom. We're going to have to fix it." He took a sip of cider to cover his smile. It was, as promised, hot and tasted crisply of apples and spices. He felt warmth spread through his body from his mouth to his chest to his frozen toes, and the scratchy blanket that Wufei had covered him with held the warmth in. "Mm, thank you, Wufei," he said, inhaling the fragrant steam.

"No problem. Do you need help strapping yourself in?"

Quatre snorted out an undignified laugh, just barely managing not to choke on his drink. "No, thanks, Wufei. You've been very kind, but if you tuck me in, I'll have a hysterical fit."

"Tuck you in? I--I--you--" Wufei spluttered and foamed before the control tower broke through on the general communications channel.

"Preventer shuttle, you are now cleared for takeoff."

Wufei snatched the paper cup from Quatre's hand, which was just as well since Quatre was laughing helplessly. "Fine. You just tuck yourself in, as you say. We'll be airborne in two minutes."

"Roger," Quatre snickered, throwing Wufei a mocking salute. He pulled the safety webbing into its secured position, tucked the blanket up under his chin, and let his exhausted body give in to its demands. He was asleep before they even left the ground.

A low but very insistent beeping noise roused Wufei from his comfortable sleep. He shook off his vague dream about a pink rain of cherry blossoms and a girl with a yellow parasol and rubbed his face. The beeping dopplered back and forth, and he recognized it as the alarm on his wristwatch. Wufei pushed in the stem to turn off the alarm, and looked at the local time. Good, he had thirty minutes to go.

After donning a fresh uniform, Wufei went to the galley and began to heat water for coffee. He had a feeling they were going to need it. Once that was done, he drifted back to the berth area and woke up Quatre.

He almost didn't. Quatre was breathing rapidly and shallowly in his sleep, and he seemed uneasy. Wufei brushed back the other man's collar and laid his fingers on Quatre's neck, noting with concern the rabbit-fast pulse beating there. Was he having a nightmare? Wufei rested his hand on Quatre's shoulder and jostled him gently.

The blond man batted Wufei's hand away and started coughing. "What?" he asked in a thick, sleepy voice when he'd gotten his breath back.

Since Quatre had woken immediately and seemed relatively alert, Wufei thought he was probably okay. "We'll be docking in half an hour or so. You should wake up."

"I'll take that under advisement," Quatre mumbled, and pulled the blanket up to his chin.

Something beeped from behind Wufei, and he remembered the hot water. He kicked himself gently off the deck and floated toward the galley, where a carafe of hot water waited for him. He carefully divided it between two drinking bulbs, added freeze-dried coffee crystals, and stirred. The brew looked muddy and unappetizing, but it contained caffeine in sufficient quantities to wake even the most reluctant sleeper.

"Coffee, Quatre," Wufei said, holding one of the bulbs under Quatre's nose. He sipped carefully from the other as he watched Quatre come to life.

"Coffee?"

"Yes, coffee." Wufei shook the bulb a bit, setting free more of the coffee's aroma.

A groping white hand emerged from the blanket, followed by an arm encased in a crumpled brown jacket sleeve. "Coffee."

Wufei settled the bulb into the hand. "How do you feel?"

Some slurping sounds emerged from beneath the blanket Quatre had hidden himself under as he drank. "Aspirin. Please."

"The bottle is in your jacket, stupid," Wufei reminded him, nudging him gently.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Preventer vehicle, prepare for docking!" blared the general communications line, making both men jump.

Quatre made an effort to untangle himself from the webbing that held him in place. "Where are we?" he asked.

"L2-2XH00G. Duo's colony. You rest. I need to dock us." Wufei patted Quatre's shoulder and launched himself toward the cockpit.

The docking jockeys on Duo's colony were quick and efficient, Quatre had to grant them that. It only took them fifteen minutes to get the shuttle safely stowed away, a fifteen minutes where Quatre gulped down more caffeine and aspirin, knocked back a shot of cough medicine, and tried to get his hair to settle into some semblance of order. He hoped he didn't look as rotten as he felt, and he hoped the coffee and medicine would revive him soon. If not, he was going to let Wufei arrest him.

Wufei came out of the cockpit looking sharp, neat and rested. Quatre envied him deeply. "There's more coffee if you want it," he said, gesturing at the nearly-empty bulb in Quatre's hand.

"Oh, is that what it is?" Quatre asked, gazing blearily at the sludge in the bottom.

"On this craft, everything is freeze-dried. I'll bet they'd freeze-dry the water if they could figure out how. Speaking of which, you might want to wait till we get to Duo's so you can have a real shower, but you can at least splash some water on your face and shave if you want...although your beard really is an interesting color."

Quatre rubbed the stubble on his jawline. Unlike the blond hair everywhere else on his body, his beard was an odd reddish-gold color, like fresh copper. He had occasionally considered letting it grow out just to see what it would look like, but he'd never gotten past the 'two-week itch' period. He wondered how men with beards could stand it. "I think I'll do that, and if you make me some more, er, coffee, I'll be forever in your debt. I'm not feeling particularly human this morning."

Wufei gave him a clap on the back that nearly sent him reeling across the cabin. "It's just your cold and spent adrenaline. Get your blood moving some and you'll feel much better."

Wufei was right. Quatre didn't exactly feel good by the time he had finished grooming himself, but he felt a little less like his brain had been turned into a sack of turnips. The second serving of coffee, awful though it was, helped too. "I'm ready if you are," he said as he exited the head.

Wufei, who had been packing his duffel bag again, raised his head and held out something light brown and dark blue; it looked vaguely familiar. "Put that on."

Taking it, Quatre realized it was one of Wufei's spare Preventer jackets. He slipped out of his own coat and put it on, noting that it was nice and warm but still lightweight. It fit perfectly too, since he and Wufei were almost exactly the same size--fortunate, since an ill-fitting uniform jacket would have looked awfully suspicious to the wrong people.

"And this," Wufei said, holding out a shoulder holster with his extra sidearm in it.

The jolt Quatre felt upon seeing the weapon wakened him far more quickly and efficiently than the coffee had. "Wufei, I can't."

Wufei's eyes held a flat, hard shine that meant he was all business. "You can. I know it's illegal as hell for a civilian to carry a firearm, let alone a concealed firearm, and if Une gets wind of it she will have my head on a platter, but you can."

Unbidden by its owner, Quatre's hand reached out and took the holster. He automatically checked the pistol, releasing the clip and making sure it was loaded and a round was chambered, then thumbed the safety on and slid it back into the holster. "I haven't fired a gun in years."

"And if luck is with us, you won't have to fire one ever again. Quatre," Wufei said with understanding, "I know you don't like it, but you have to look the part. It's just another piece of window-dressing, like the jacket."

"A prop," Quatre said, feeling a bit less numb.

"Yes, exactly. It's like a prop in a play. I'm not asking you to actually use it. The worst that'll happen is that you'll have to push your jacket back and show whomever we've come to see that you're armed."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Once again, Quatre unholstered the weapon and slid out the clip. "Then I won't be needing this," he said, tossing it in Wufei's direction.

Wufei caught the tossed clip a bit clumsily, as if he hadn't been expecting Quatre to actually throw it away. "But, what if..."

"No, Wufei. I'm not a killer anymore. I build"

Wufei looked resigned, but not at all pleased. He pocketed the clip reluctantly. "Fine. Let's go."

Duo and Hilde's house looked like it had been grown rather than built.

It had started out as a tidy, cozy little two-bedroom bungalow, just perfect for a young newlywed couple, but soon after the two had moved in, the construction had begun.

In the first year, they had added two large rooms, one for Hilde's photography hobby and one for Duo's workshop. Then Duo had decided he needed another storage room, so that was added. In the second year, they had put in another bathroom, added a laundry room, and enlarged the kitchen. By the third year, they had moved on to the rest of the property, building a garage and a hothouse on their large (by Colony standards) lot.

When they felt the need to expand again, they could not grow outward due to space restrictions, so they had simply raised the original house, plus additions, up on scaffolding and added another story underneath. The last time Quatre had visited, the entire house had been in chaos as workers bustled in and out like ants in a disturbed hill, carrying in I-beams, rebar, and PVC pipe as they built a new game room with a wet bar, an office, a full bathroom and a miniature kitchen on what was now the ground floor.

Construction on the house seemed to have come to some sort of lull since then. The house was sided and painted, anyway, and there were no ankle-trapping piles of debris on the dark lawn. "They finished it," Quatre remarked, awestruck.

Duo had refused any offers of help from his construction company over the years, claiming that there were more than enough builders on L2-2XH00G and he wanted to help the local economy. Quatre understood and even approved, but he was still impressed by the fact that a bunch of unskilled laborers had done such a wonderful and professional job.

"Finished what?" Wufei asked.

"The house. I think it's finally finished."

"What do you mean--oh shit, what is that!"

Quatre took in a sharp, panicked breath and turned toward the source of Wufei's disturbance. He was in the middle of crouching into a defensive posture when a pony-sized animal barreled into him at top speed. "Ooof!" Quatre grunted as he was knocked onto his bottom.

"Stop or be shot!" Wufei shouted.

Quatre laughed as he felt a warm, wet, smelly tongue lap the side of his face. "Wufei, put the gun down. It's Hunter."

"What?"

"Hilde's dog," Quatre said rather breathlessly.

"Oh. Are you okay?" Wufei asked as he knelt down on the grass.

Quatre pulled his face away from the lapping tongue. "I think I have a new bruise on my behind, but yes, I'm okay. Hunter, down!"

The dog, panting excitedly, immediately sat down. Quatre, panting less excitedly, rose to his feet. Wufei holstered his gun. "We must have woken up half the colony," he remarked.

"No, Duo and Hilde sleep like rocks and I'm sure the neighbors have learned to sleep with earplugs by now."

Wufei gave him a sidelong glance, as if he wasn't sure whether Quatre had made a sexual comment or not, but he let it slide and followed the blond to a flight of stairs at the back of the house. These led up to a door that, as Duo had promised, had the alarm deactivated. They picked the deadbolt with a minimum of noise and entered a large, cluttered kitchen. "If you're hungry, Duo really meant it when he said you could raid the fridge," Quatre informed his companion, but he saw that Wufei wasn't interested in food at the moment. He was busy looking at the artwork on the walls.

"Amazing..." he breathed, staring transfixed at the framed and matted photographs. Most of them were black and white, a few were hand-tinted, and they were all exquisite.

"Yes, Hilde is very talented. Do you know she took all of these with a homemade camera?"

"I didn't know there was such a thing," Wufei said, never taking his eyes from the photos.

"Yeah, it's basically a cardboard box with some light-sensitive paper taped to the inside and a tiny little pinhole to let the light in. The technique is hundreds of years old." Quatre felt something nudge his hand and absently reached down to scratch Hunter's ears. For such a big animal, he was very quiet.

"I've heard of it," Wufei said, reaching up to brush his fingers almost reverently across a photo of some wildflowers, taken at ground level and tinted with delicate pinks and greens and yellows. "It's a difficult technique to master, I'd imagine."

"Very." Quatre interrupted himself with a yawn. "Excuse me, I'm going to go lie down for a while. I'm tired and my knee hurts."

"All right, go ahead," Wufei said absently, moving on to the next set of photos.

Patting his thigh to indicate that he wanted Hunter to follow him, Quatre made his way to the living room to find something to collapse on.

Wufei woke to the sound of giggles and whispers, which alarmed him at first, but his memory quickly supplied him with the relevant data. He was safe. There was no need to grab for the gun holstered at his side. He'd fallen asleep in a comfortable lounge chair at about five o'clock in the morning, after fixing himself a snack and taking a quick shower to help himself relax. He was sure Duo wouldn't mind.

The whispers and giggles started up again, and Wufei cracked an eye open to see what it was all about.

It was Duo and Hilde, and they had apparently just gotten out of bed since they were wearing pajamas. One pair of pajamas, to be precise; Duo wore the bottom and Hilde wore the top of the same set. They must have been Duo's since the hem of the shirt hit Hilde at about mid-thigh and she had needed to roll the cuffs up a few turns to have use of her hands. Wufei was glad of that. He didn't think he could stand to be flashed with feminine undergarments at this hour of the morning.

"Quiet, Peanut, these guys are really light sleepers," Duo whispered. His hair was braided, but so frazzled with sleep that it looked like a length of old hemp rope against his bare back.

"Can't help it," Hilde giggled. She had a cardboard box in her hands, and her short black hair stood up in weird spikes and corkscrews. Evidently she hadn't had time to groom herself either. "They're so cute!"

Wufei directed his attention to whatever she was looking at and barely suppressed a laugh in time.

Quatre had chosen a large, leather-covered sofa to curl up in, and apparently Hunter had chosen to sleep there too since the big grey dog was currently being used as Quatre's pillow. Quatre's right arm was slung chummily around the dog's neck as his head rested on Hunter's flank, and they were both snoring gently, apparently content with each other's company. A large cat of the orange tabby variety was sprawled out against Quatre's stomach, lying on its back with all four paws in the air and Quatre's left arm underneath it.

"Three...two...one...got it!" Hilde cried out in a stage whisper, holding her box aloft.

"Got what?" Wufei asked, sitting upright in his chair.

Hilde squeaked and whirled around, clutching the box to her chest. "Oh, hi Wufei. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's all right. I should be up anyway, we have things to do." Wufei sat up, sweeping his loose hair back with both hands.

"What things?"

Wufei felt relieved. Apparently Duo had kept his mouth shut even to Hilde...but then again, they hadn't given him much information to begin with. "Sit down, both of you. We need to talk."

Duo threw himself down in an armchair, and Hilde climbed into his lap. "Should we wake up Blondie?" Duo asked.

Wufei looked at the sleeping man, considering it. "No, let him sleep. He isn't well."

The identical expressions of concern on the couple's faces would have been humorous under other conditions. "What's wrong with him?"

"He took an unexpected swim in the Pacific Ocean and caught a chill. It's nothing serious."

"Wait, what was he doing swimming in the Pacific Ocean? In February?"

Wufei got up from his chair and went to fetch his laptop, which he had left in the kitchen. Once he had retrieved it and found the recording, he sat down next to the couple and took a deep breath. "It began last Sunday, when Quatre received a call at his home..."

"Fuck." Duo's eyes had gone the color of storm clouds, which was never a good sign.

Hilde, on the other hand, looked like she had been slapped. Her blue eyes were wide and she was very pale. "But why? Why would he do something like that?"

"I don't know," said Wufei. "That's what we're here to find out."

"He's such a good kid, though, I-I just can't get my mind around it," Hilde stammered.

"What can you tell me about him?" Wufei asked.

For his wife's sake, Duo tried to tamp down some of his anger. "His name's Coe Ervy, but everyone calls him Blue 'cause he hardly ever dresses in any other color. He came to work for us almost a year ago. He said he knew about me, see, said he'd read some magazine article about the Gundam pilots or something, and he'd wanted to meet me. He said he was a war orphan and a street kid like me, and he looked up to me because I'd made something of myself...God, I can't believe I believed his bullshit!"

Hilde rested her head on his shoulder. "Honey, don't."

He hugged her tightly. "Sorry, Peanut."

Wufei continued, "So this Blue person, you went on to hire him?"

Holding Hilde seemed to be helping Duo stay calm. "Yeah, I hired him right after he graduated from school. Before that, he used to come by every afternoon and say hi, hang out with the guys, you know."

"He practically worshipped Duo," Hilde added. "He followed him around like a puppy. He got along well with me and the other guys, but you could tell that he wanted to be Duo. He even started growing his hair out long so he could put it in a braid."

"Yeah, and I have to admit, I was kinda flattered by that," Duo said with a scowl that would have curdled milk. "So as soon as he got out of school, he left the group home he'd been living at and moved in here for about three months. He stayed in the guest room, worked doing whatever needed doing, and was generally a good kid. He kept his music down and his paws off the silver, anyway."

"Did he do anything that might have required a lot of money? Drugs? Gambling?"

Duo shook his head. "No, like I said, he seemed like a good kid. He drank a bit and sometimes he'd hang out with his old gang, but he stayed out of trouble."

"He liked flashy cars and expensive clothes," Hilde said. "He spent most of his money on clothes and shoes and things like that. I kept trying to tell him that he should save at least some of his money, but he just couldn't seem to hang on to a credit if there was something in the shops that caught his eye. He was always broke come payday."

Wufei peered at the couple through his fingers as he massaged his forehead. Something was bothering him. "If Ervy was spending all his money on clothes, then how did he manage to move out after living with your for only three months? I find that hard to believe."

"The whole story is hard to believe," said a new voice. Wufei, Hilde, and Duo turned to look over at the sofa, where Quatre was sitting up with Hunter's head on his knee. Wufei was a bit startled by the man's appearance. The blond hair hung in limp, slightly greasy strands around his face and his complexion was greyish with dark circles of fatigue under his eyes in spite of the rest he'd had. The bruise on his cheek had turned an ugly purple and seemed to be spreading. "There was never a magazine article about you, Duo," he said in a strange, hollow voice.

Duo looked at him with his brows drawn together. "How can you know that, Quat? There were plenty of stories about the Gundam pilots after the wars."

"Yes, but none of them named you specifically. And I assure you, there's been nothing in the media about your background. About any of our backgrounds."

Wufei felt himself frown. "That information was never classified, Quatre."

Quatre smiled wanly. "No, not exactly classified, but certainly not available to the public. There's a certain grey area where information like that can lie low until the either the principals involved choose to reveal it or the statute of limitations runs out. And I can guarantee that the latter won't happen in our lifetimes."

A light began to dawn in Wufei's mind; a light that he simultaneously admired and resented. "You've somehow got us under media silence. How and why?"

Quatre's smile grew grim. "How? I happen to be acquainted with some very talented and persuasive lawyers. Why? Well, for every ten Colony citizens who might like to throw a parade in our honor, I'm sure there is one who would like to see us tried as war criminals. And maybe one in a hundred who might wish to take justice into his or her own hands. Not all of them were sympathetic to our ideals, remember?"

There was a horrible silence in the room as the four of them remembered. Hilde, who had once been an OZ officer and Wufei, who had once been part of Mariemeia's army, shot each other a glance that neither of them could sustain for long. The shared burden of guilt was just too great.

It was Duo who broke the silence. "Jesus, Quatre. I had no idea."

"Well, Wufei and I are the only ones who required any work to cover our roles in the war, and in my case, I was 'missing' for most of it. You, Heero, and Trowa don't have any public records to begin with, so hiding you was fairly easy. And Hilde," he smiled fondly at the young woman in Duo's arms, "as far as anyone is concerned, you were student working part-time as a waitress and not the brave warrior who risked her life to help destroy the Libra and save the earth."

"Hey!" Duo's cry was indignant, "You trying to sweet-talk my girl, Winner?"

"Shut up, Duo."

Wufei, who had been trying to digest the fact that he was, in the eyes of the public, anyway, a non-person during those turbulent years, suddenly remembered to look at his watch. It was 0815. "Duo, Hilde, what time are you supposed to be at work?"

Duo shrugged. "We usually get in around nine, nine-thirty. We don't officially open till ten o'clock, but our fliers like to get a head start. They have keys."

"Fliers?" Wufei asked.

"Yeah, the pilots who do scouting and the actual salvage work. Hilde and I mostly work Colonyside unless they need an extra pair of hands or two out there."

Quatre cleared his throat. "Hilde, you might want to go out with your fliers today. We need to talk to Coe."

At the mention of the name, Hilde's expression went from relaxed and pleased to coldly murderous. Her eyes went icy and her lips compressed into a hard, bloodless slit. "I think you're right, Quatre. If I catch sight of the little bastard, I don't think there'll be enough of him left to arrest."

Wufei was surprised at the ferocity of her tone, but both Duo and Quatre were regarding her with solemn admiration, as if they knew that she could make good on her violent threat with as much expertise and finesse as she showed in making her photographs. For all he knew, she could.

Duo kissed Hilde's bizarrely sleep-twisted hair. "You should go with Raoul and Mimi and check out that fragged RS we saw yesterday, but first, we need a shower." He stood up easily, still holding the petite woman in his arms. His blue eyes sought out Quatre's. "Quat, there's another shower downstairs you can use. No offence, but you look like you could use one."

"Thank you," Quatre said wearily, picking up his duffel and making his way to the staircase.

Duo watched with a slightly worried look on his face while Quatre limped slowly down the stairs and then looked to his other guest. "Wufei, you seem pretty clean, so I'm putting you on cooking duty." He grinned broadly and winked. "I know you can make a mean pot of oatmeal."

Wufei sniffed. "I'll show you cooking, Maxwell," he said, and strode off to the kitchen while the rest of the household went about their morning routines.

Quatre stared at himself in the full-length mirror, almost unable to recognize his own reflection. When he'd gotten out of the shower, he'd found a pile of folded clothing waiting for him on the counter by the sink.

The tan shirt and slacks were crisply starched, and the stark black tie hung down his front like an exclamation point. Disregarding the muddy, battered boots and the damp hair, he looked every inch a Preventers agent. Even his bruised face contributed to the image. He wasn't sure he liked it.

Consoling himself with the thought that it was only 'window-dressing', he slowly climbed the stairs and made his way to the kitchen, where the rest of the household had already congregated and was preparing to eat breakfast.

Hilde, now dressed in a lightweight sweater and black leggings, was hovering over the toaster while Duo, wearing a long-sleeved pullover, black jeans, and a towel twisted around his head like a turban, manned the coffee maker. Wufei had apparently commandeered the rest of the kitchen and was attending to a steaming saucepan, a deep-fryer, and a skillet all at once. His hands were a blur of motion.

Duo spotted Quatre first. "Hey! Look, it's Preventer Winner!" he said, and snapped a mocking salute.

Wufei looked the blond over with a critical eye. "There's a fingerprint on your tie clip," he said, and went back to work.

So there was. Quatre polished it off with his cuff. "I feel weird wearing this."

"Don't listen to those goofs, honey. You look great." Hilde left her station by the toaster and gave Quatre a proper hug hello, which made him smile. Then she broke the hug and held him at arms' length. "Say, how's that wonderful boyfriend of yours doing? Has he dug up any good reading material lately?"

Quatre's smile evolved into a broad grin. "I'm sure he'd have sent it your way if he had."

There was a low growl from Duo, who was busy setting plates and silverware on the kitchen table. "Dammit, Hilde, I swear you're getting addicted to that gay porn stuff."

Wufei nearly dropped his spatula. "Trowa sends you gay porn?"

She whirled around to face him, arms crossed over her chest and her nose in the air. "It's not porn, it's erotica," she declared in a lofty tone.

Wufei blinked. "The difference being?"

Duo answered for her. "Apparently, when it's written by a man, it's porn. When it's written by a woman, it's erotica."

Wufei turned back to whatever he was cooking. "Breakfast is ready," he said shortly.

The four were presented with a somewhat odd breakfast as Wufei set out deep-fried bread dough, steamed dumplings filled with shrimp and vegetables, and bowls of hot soup made from soy milk, while Duo and Hilde stuck with the more Western offerings of toast and coffee. Quatre looked at the spread blearily as they began to discuss strategy.

"I think I should go in first," Duo said as he buttered his dumplings. "I think you two will scare him off." He pointed his knife at Wufei and Quatre in turns.

Hilde was quite clearly not going to be involved in this, as she was obviously in a state over Blue's betrayal. Her threats of grievous bodily harm were very real, and she certainly had the means to carry them out. She stared silently into her coffee cup while Duo sketched out a map of the scrapyard for Wufei.

Quatre, having little interest in breakfast himself, placed a gentle hand on her arm. "Hilde? What's wrong?"

She picked the napkin up from her lap and began to shred it. Her voice was cold as ice. "I liked him, Quatre, I really did. The minute Duo brought him home for dinner the first time, I knew I wanted him to work for us. He said I cooked the best potatoes he'd ever eaten, and he was so energetic, so charming...dammit! Here I thought I was such a good judge of character!"

"It's okay, Hilde. You couldn't have known."

She dropped the shreds of her napkin and began to mangle her toast viciously. "I know that, but I can't stop feeling angry about it. I feel so...used."

"Perfectly understandable," Quatre said, feeling the tense muscles in her arm flex as she throttled her breakfast. "Maybe you'd feel better if you took a walk or something."

She nodded curtly. "Good idea. Guys, I'm taking off for a few minutes," she announced to the table in general, then she took a deep breath and bellowed, "HUNTER!"

The dog immediately galloped into the room, toenails clicking on the tile, and skidded to a halt in front of his mistress, panting excitedly. If he was picking up on any of Hilde's rage, he certainly wasn't showing it, but dogs can be discreet that way.

"Don't go too far, babe," Duo said, looking up from his map, and she nodded, waved, and dashed out the door. Quatre badly wanted to follow her, but instead, he scooted his chair a little closer to the head of the table and tried to make sense of the hastily-drawn map.

It took him a moment to get a sense of the layout of the scrapyard, which seemed to be different from the way he remembered it on his last visit, but he quickly located the building he wanted. "Duo, is this still your long-term storage bay?" he asked, putting a finger on a medium-sized building near the scrapyard's front entrance.

Duo nodded. "Yeah. Building 2D."

"If I remember correctly, this building has only one door, no windows, and mostly contains packing crates and other shipping materials. Has it changed?"

"Nope. One door, four skylights, no windows, and it's still full of shipping stuff."

Wufei frowned. "What are you getting at, Quatre?" he asked, and was immediately smacked on the arm.

"Hush, let him think," Duo hissed in an undertone.

But Quatre was already finished thinking. He smiled, feeling better than he had for days, and tapped his finger on the square representing Building 2D. "This is where we make our stand."

TBC