Chapter Seven

Wu Fei POV

It was going to be a long week, I could feel it. Heero had yet to revert to the calm, almost soft boy he had been for the past several weeks. Instead he stayed the soldier, who seemed intent upon wearing himself out by training or working on the gundam he treasured. Any interruptions warranted a gun in the face, and an angry soldier yelling himself hoarse and glaring until his face hurt. Apparently a bored soldier is not a nice soldier. With no missions and no reason to keep Heero as a soldier, I wonder quite often: Was J TRYING to kill us off?

I think the whole soldier trigger hurt Quatre the most. He was troubled when he couldn't feel any of us, and Heero's training consisted of blocking out Quatre's empathy. Unable to feel him, Quatre seemed to make up for it by not letting the Wing pilot out of his sight. Heero, for the most part, ignored the small blond. When he was being quiet and stayed out of the Wing pilot's way.

"Wu Fei!" I blinked out of my meditation to find Quatre in the doorway, worry etched on his face. I knew that look….. "Have you seen Heero?"

"Quatre, the guy's a soldier. He is capable of taking care of himself." I sighed. But Quatre wouldn't be dissuaded. He was quite stubborn when he wanted to be – mainly when dealing with who he deemed his friends.

"Could you help me look for him?" He pleaded. How could I say no to such a pathetic look? Trowa wasn't the only one who had a soft spot for the boy……

"Fine, but if he shoots me for bothering him I am coming back to haunt you." I warned. Quatre giggled nervously and I sighed. I followed him halfheartedly around the house. I wasn't worried about Heero. Quatre shouldn't be either. I told him so and got a hurt look in return.

We ended up finding Heero in the cave with the Gundams. He was scrunched up in one of Wing's knee joints, wrench in hand. Grease and dirt covered his body, and he had little tears in his tank top. "Heero!" I heard a curse, and saw Heero jerking his hand away to stick his thumb in his mouth. The wrench came tumbling down, nearly landing on my head.

"Itai! K'so!"

"Heero? You okay?" Quatre called up. Heero stuck his head out and glared down at us. He somehow looked less intimidating with smudges of grease on his face.

"I was until you came along." I saw Quatre flinch. Heero's eyes widened as Quatre turned a pitiful gaze up at him. It seemed like the great soldier didn't know how to deal with a sad Quatre, just like the rest of us. I smirked as he sighed and forcibly soften his glare.

"Gomen Quatre. I didn't mean to snap." The apology looked painful, but Quatre brightened. "Now what do you want?"

"I couldn't find you." Quatre said, as if it explained everything. Which I suppose it did. Heero scowled. "You know I can't feel you, so why didn't you tell me where you were going?"

"It's none of your business where I go and what I do." Quatre looked hurt for a moment before plowing on. I decided to stay and act as a referee in case things got out of hand.

"Heero you're my comrade and, I'd hope, my friend. I like to know that you're safe. Just like the others." Heero pulled himself out of the knee joint.

"You don't follow them around." He dropped down and snatched the wrench up from where it had landed.

"I can feel them." Quatre said, touching his chest. "I know that they're okay. If you could lower your blocks enough for me to…"

"No." Heero scaled his Gundam's leg and squeezed back into the joint. Quatre huffed, but planted himself by Wing's foot. I took my leave of the pair and retreated back into the house. Only to find Duo waiting for me. I sighed.

"Q-ball and Heero going at it again?" He asked. I nodded and settled into the couch. Duo perched on the arm of a recliner. "When do you think he'll be triggered again?"

"Hopefully soon. He's an exceptional soldier, but he's a taxing civilian. More so than you." Duo grinned. "I am also getting tired of the arguments between him and Quatre." Duo nodded.

"Poor Quatre. He's going apeshit because he can't sense Heero. Then with Heero not letting him through…." I nodded, agreeing, although I would not have used such vulgar terms. "I think Trowa's suffering for it too." Duo said. "Quat's spending less time with him as he tries to keep tabs on Heero. It a wonder Quat doesn't sense him."

"I never thought of that. But what can we do about it?"

"Short of calling J? Absolutely nothing." The mere thought of coming into contact with the man responsible for Heero's upbringing and our genetic mutations made me cringe. I could see Duo cringe at the thought as well.

"What are you so somber about?" I looked up to see Trowa making his way down the stairs. He must have been up on his computer.

"Heero." Duo said. Trowa nodded.

"Quatre's with him again?" His voice was calm.

"You mad?" Duo asked tentatively.

"No. I understand. Quatre needs to know we're all okay, and since he can sense us and not Heero…..it's only logical that he spend time with Heero." His logic was astounding. By the look on Duo's face, he expected Trowa to be upset over his lovers new interest. "Heero and I have a mission together. We leave tomorrow morning."

Heero POV

When J bleeped me I was still working on one of the joints in Wing's knee, and much like when Quatre had distracted me I wrenched my thumb and dropped the tool. And I cursed, forgetting that my line was open.

"What was that Zero One?" I froze.

"Nothing sir." I heard a snort. "Do you have orders?"

"I do. You and Zero Three are to take your Gundams to point…" He rattled off latitude and longitude. "The base there got their hands on some of my data via spy. I need you to recover it and destroy the base. Everyone in there must be eliminated."

"Ryoukai."

"When you retrieve the data, send it via your Gundam and then destroy the disk."

"Hai."

"You will leave in the morning." He bleeped out and I squeezed out of Wing's knee. Quatre had disappeared momentarily and I sighed in relief as I leapt down to the floor. I kicked the wrench in the general direction of the tool boxes. It clattered against one with a bang.

"Heero?" I almost groaned as Quatre poked his head around his Gundams foot. "Are you finished?"

"Mission." He blinked and I quickly walked out of the cave. I could hear Quatre scramble around in an attempt to pick up my mess, but was in the house before he was finished. Trowa was in the living room with Duo and Wu Fei. All three looked up when I entered.

"Were you notified?"

"Hai. I'm getting ready now, you should as well. We'll leave before the sun comes up." I heard Duo choke in surprise, even though he wasn't the one leaving n the morning, as I retreated to my room.

I booted up my computer and proceeded to gather as much information about the base as I could: security rounds, security features, personnel, guards, soldiers, mecha, types of mecha, building blueprints exits and entrances, possible number of rooms, weaponry, lab information, the works. Within two hours I knew the base inside and out.

I packed a small duffel bag with clothing - enough to last me for days. That bag was stuffed into the corner of a second, larger bag. This one could easily fit a person inside, if they were bent and stuffed right. I loaded this bag with enough pre-made c4 bombs and detonators to blow up a small colony.

I gently placed the bag by my door and shut down my computer. It was only seven, but I toed off my shoes and fell onto my bed. If I was going to get up as early as I had told Trowa, I would need to sleep now. Unfortunately sleep would not come at that time. Duo made sure of that.

"Heero?" I let out a little growl as Duo poked his head in. "You need any help getting ready?" I bit back the rude comment I was ready to make. "Oh, you're already in bed?"

"I DO have to get up early." I replied, sitting up. I pushed the light covers down and crossed my legs. He invited himself the rest of the way in, but didn't move to join me on the bed.

"Is the mission going to be hard?" He asked, leaning against the wall. Gone was the joker I knew, replaced by a serious soldier. I was impressed.

"No harder than the one you and I went on."

"We had backup." I tilted my head. "You and Trowa will be alone."

"Don't concern yourself over it. It's a simple infiltrate then destroy. We'll be done in three days time." Duo was silent. "Is that all?"

"I just wanted to hang." Duo said with a shrug. "Q and Tro are busy and Wu Fei is meditating. I'm bored."

"So work on your Gundam." I said in annoyance.

"Deathscythe is all up to date and in one big shiny piece." I raised an eyebrow at him. "He doesn't need to be working on. And there's nothing to do on the computer, and nothing to watch on TV."

"That's not my fault."

"Humor me? One game?" I glanced up to see a pack of cards in one of his hands. I frown. "Your choice, providing I know how to play." I sighed in defeat and he grinned. I braced myself as he hopped onto my bed. "Thanks! I'll leave you be after this."

"You better." I chose rummy. A simple, easy to play, quick game that didn't involve betting or gambling of any kind. From the look on Duo's face, he was expecting me to choose a game like poker.

We played. The game took longer than I thought it would, and Duo was a fierce player. He had no poker face to save his life though, and I couldn't wait to challenge him to a game – when I had more time. He eventually accepted defeat gracefully and gathered the cards back into their box.

"Thanks for the game. Maybe sometime we can play poker?" I nodded. "And maybe sometime I can take a brush to your fur?"

"Don't push your luck." I growled. He grinned and shrugged, but I could identify the determined glint in his eyes as he left. I knew I was a goner when he finally decided to 'take a brush to' my fur.

Duo left as promised and I settled back into my bed, which was now warmed by our combined body heat. It was now nine. I turned the lights of and slept.

TBC

A bit shorter than the others, but not terribly.