Author's Note: Once again, the power that is Anonymous Void has struck down yet another pilot. Three down, two to go, but not in this fic (spoiler!). For those who are Wufei fans, this includes you too Tora-chan, my condolences on your loss. For the rest of you, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Warning: language, shounen ai, dark themes

Coincidence? I Think Not!

From his vantage point, Odin had a perfect view of the Winner Mansion and he frowned at it when nothing of significance happened to it.

He was positive, no, more than certain, that the bomb should have gone off by now. From his research, he was sure that the target wouldn't have recognized the scent that methane gas gave off. In fact, he was sure that no one outside of the hired help knew what it smelled like and he had timed the release of the gas so that no one would catch until it had spread quite a ways over the mansion.

When a half hour passed by and the only thing of worth that happened was a vehicle from the local gas company arrive, he began to feel as if something was wrong.

He needed to get out of here, and quick. Starting up his car, he accidentally turned the car radio on, something that he usually kept off since he deemed music a waste of time.

…at the site of the Chang Estate grounds where earlier today an explosion tore out of the building. According to local authorities, no one was seriously injured but the Chang Family reports that Chang Wufei, son of Chang Huang and Chang Meifeng, is currently missing…

Odin's blood froze in his veins. An explosion? At another mansion? But that was…it couldn't…! How could this be?!

Then he remembered delivering the bomb at the target's school and that there was a boy of Chinese origin there who received the bomb. Chang was a Chinese name, wasn't it? Could it be that…that…that some moronic boy messed up a hit, forever putting a smudge on his perfect record?

If that boy (1) was still alive, he was going to finish the job if he wasn't dead already.

--

"Holy shit."

Removing his attention from the man that had been sent by the gas company, Raberba Winner turned his attention towards his younger brother. Ezekiel was staring avidly at a television set where an image of a familiar home was being broadcasted, a pillar of dark smoke rising from one of the upper stories.

"Isn't that the Chang residence?" he asked his brother aloud, the gas representative also becoming enthralled with the news report.

Ezekiel only nodded, not bothering to answer verbally.

Raberba had a right to be concerned; that estate was not too far from here. In fact, if he looked out of one of the east wing windows, he more than likely would have been able to see the very pillar of smoke that was beginning to turn into a whitish cloud as firefighters began to finish off the fire within the building.

"I was just there," he heard the man from the gas company whisper. "A couple of days ago," the man continued to whisper, "I was…I was…"

It was times like these that one began to recognize their own mortality. Turning to the man, Raberba said, "Do you need some privacy? To compose yourself?"

"Yes, yes, I think I will," the horrified man said.

Directing the shaken man to a guest room, Raberba watched as the man left the room and saw Duo at the door, pale as pale can be and with a worried Solomon at his side.

"Duo?" the eldest Winner asked aloud.

Slowly, a foot at a time, the braided teen crossed the threshold, his eyes darting to the television and back to the Winner elder. It wasn't much but Raberba got the idea.

"I take it you've heard about this," he stated, gesturing to the TV.

Duo nodded his head and whispered, "Just a few minutes ago."

A frown beginning to mar the man's face, he asked, "Is there something about it that bothers you?"

Duo swallowed audibly, even as he plopped himself down on a couch, his arms wrapping around his body as if trying to ward away some sort of chill. "My father…" he rasped.

Raberba's frown became more pronounced. "What has he to do with this?" he asked, gesturing to the TV.

Solomon placed himself next to the braided teen and gathered him into him arms, one of his hands petting the chestnut hair that the lad sported. From the corner of his eye, he could see how the display of affection was bothering Ezekiel. His brother was always squeamish around some displays, even if they came from his wife.

"The…other day," Duo managed to say.

"What about it?" he inquired.

"My father…he…he offered to recognize me…as his son…that is if I…I," Duo continued, swallowing, "…if I helped…helped him with his deal, make it go through. I said no and he…he said I would regret it."

"And how does this fit in…?" he asked, feeling a shadow of dread begin to gather in his gut.

"There was…" Duo began but it seemed as if the boy lost his nerve. However, it was Solomon who took up the mantle and continued with Duo's story. It seemed that the boy had an idea of what Duo was trying to say but what that was, Raberba had yet to grasp though he too had an idea of what it was.

"Something came in the mail for Duo at school," Solo explained, looking at Duo for confirmation that what he was saying was what the braided one would have said and received an affirmative. "It came in this morning but we didn't know anything about it until lunch when a lady from the office told us about it and that Wufei had it on him."

Wufei? That name…it rang a bell. But what did it mean?

"Who is Wufei? His full name," he asked.

"Wufei Chang or is it Chang Wufei?" Solo answered though he was having a bit of trouble trying to decide which it was.

But it was the name Chang that stopped Raberba cold. Chang Wufei. A fire at the Chang Estate. Could this be what Raberba was dreading it to be?

"It was a bomb," Duo blurted out, tears beginning to leak from his eyes. "He's tried that before, mailing me a bomb."

That was the final piece for him. Dmitri Tsubarov had made another attempt on his son's life only this time someone else got hurt instead of the person who was threatened. But all the evidence was circumstantial, nothing concrete. At least not yet but if only there was a way to gain some hard, undeniable proof, something that even Tsubarov would be hard pressed to deny.

"Ezekiel," he said suddenly, gaining his brother's attention. "I need to speak with you, privately."

Ezekiel stared at him for but a moment before nodding his head and standing up. Before leaving the room, he glanced back at the sight of his son with Duo, a look of yearning on his face but ultimately backed out, Raberba following after him to leave the two teens to their selves.

Leading his brother a ways from the teens, he stopped and brought his face within inches of his brother's and began to confer to him his wishes in a quiet tone of voice. "I want you to start searching for any suspicious activity concerning Dmitri Tsubarov including all communications he made be they emails or phone calls. Look at all monetary transactions in the past three days, if there are any. I'll find out everything I can about the bombing itself and pass along anything I find. Tomorrow evening, I want to know everything you found that can be considered important."

"But isn't Tsubarov coming in tomorrow afternoon?" Ezekiel asked.

"Not anymore," Raberba replied. "We have a gas leak, remember? I'll reschedule the meeting for another day. He'll have to accept it and it'll buy us a little more time."

The younger Winner nodded his agreement to the elder.

"Meanwhile," Raberba continued, "we'll go to the penthouse and stay there until the leak is fixed and the house aired out. No need staying in a building filled with methane, eh?"

"I'll inform the others," Ezekiel said.

Satisfied, Raberba did not turn around to return to the room that held the two teenagers but heading towards his office where he would need to make a few calls.

--

"I am sorry to hear that," Tsubarov said gruffly over the phone. "Perhaps we can meet up sometime tomorrow at your office and continue negotiations there?"

The man fell silent as he listened to the reply, a frown overtaking his face easily and exposing all the facial wrinkles that he had accumulated over his whole lifetime. It was obvious that he did not like the answer he had been told.

"Can't you just cancel something?" he asked.

A pause followed.

"Well, you can't blame me for trying," he stated. "So when is the next time you can meet with me? Yes, I can meet you then. Thank you for your time Mr. Winner."

Hanging up, Tsubarov wiped the sweat off of his brow as he turned his attention back to the television where currently the local news was reporting that the fire at the Chang Estate had been put out and firefighters were currently sifting through the burned part of the mansion, searching for anybody who may have been unlucky enough not to get out of the building in time.

He had a bad feeling about this, a really bad feeling. It wasn't as if he hadn't been exposed to something like this, something that one got used to when they were up in the higher rungs of the hierarchy at Romafellor. No, there was something about this that screamed to him that this was no accident, if it was even being considered one.

It didn't help that Odin had yet to contact him, informing him that his son had gone the way of the dodo. The boy should have been dead by now, now that he thought about it, especially since it was Odin who he had hired to commit the deed. Had something gone wrong? No, no that was impossible. Nothing ever went wrong whenever Odin was on the case. He was just…biding his time, yeah that was it! The assassin hadn't found a means to kill the boy yet, of course.

That was the only explanation that Tsubarov could come up with.

But it was one that he would cling to and the only one that held any hope for him.

--

Solo gazed out of the penthouse's large windows, the lights of the city without providing quite the sight to the blond, even as he wrapped his arms around Duo protectively.

The sudden move from the mansion to the penthouse had been unexpected and Solo had suspected that the bombing at the Chang Estate had prompted the move. However, that was not the case since the excuse he had been told was about the presence of methane in the house and that there was an apparent gas leak. It was common sense, so he had been told, that it would be too dangerous to stay at the mansion until the leak had been fixed.

All that had come from the mouth of his father, Ezekiel, and he usually would have found some second meaning in-between the lines but not today it seemed. He was still so unused to that new side of his father that he had been exposed to only recently, the one where the man had a backbone.

It seemed he was just going to have to sit back and let the adults in this situation handle things this time around. That was one thing he didn't like to do, that is not be in control of a situation and let others handle it. He just didn't like being in that position of helplessness, that was all. He wanted to be able to do something, anything, be productive, constructive, whatever, and not just have some assholes control his fate.

However, the small figure of Duo that was currently snuggled up against him was more than enough to convince him to stay where he currently was. Who was he to deny himself the pleasure of having his significant other exactly where he was gazing into a sight that few took the time to admire anymore.

"Pretty, ain't it?" he spoke aloud to the braided one, referring to the sight of the city at night.

"Uh huh," Duo mumbled.

Telling by how heavy Duo's voice was and also the fact that the little guy's breathing was getting deeper by the minute, Solo gave an educated guess that Duo was close to sleep.

Then again, why wouldn't he want to go to sleep? This day, while it had started out all right, had turned into a right nightmare, what with the death of a classmate even though it was a person that neither of them liked. It was just another reminder of the mortality that everyone possessed, including them.

Duo was so convinced that it had been a bomb that had killed Wufei the moment it was reported a body, or the remains of one, had been found and everyone but the Chinese teen had been accounted for. Solo had wanted to argue the point that it could have been a spark combined with a gas leak that caused the explosion. There was a leak currently being dealt at the house; was it so farfetched that the same thing could have happened elsewhere? Plus everything else was just circumstantial, even if his father and uncle were kinda taking it a little bit seriously.

But Duo was adamant and wouldn't budge from his view. He just had to be stubborn about this, didn't he? Still, it was something he liked about him and wouldn't change it for the world.

"Night, Short Stuff," he whispered to the braided one, using the little nickname that he was so fond of.

"Dun call me that, Tree Trunk," Duo mumbled as he snuggled back further against him.

As Duo's breathing evened out, Solo chuckled and said, "I'll call you whatever I want to, Short Stuff."

(1) This is in reference to Wufei, not Duo.