On time, yay! Hope you enjoy!

Part 5 of ?

The next day started early. Very early. Much too early as far as Duo was concerned. But a Heero Yuy banging on their doors at five o'clock in the morning to tell them there was a mission, was not a person to be argued with. Duo cursed as he tried to deal with hair that had been left free and wet all night. Finally, after Heero yelled at him to get moving, for the fourth time, he just pulled it back into a tangled pony tail. The expression on his face as he went downstairs stopped anyone else from saying anything about it. He was *not* a happy pilot. Not only was his hair not in its customary and traditional braid, but it was going to take hours to get all the tangles out when he finally got time to deal with it.

The mission wasn't terribly dangerous, but it was long. The base they had gone to destroy was several hours away from the safehouse, and they spent several more hours making sure they weren't followed back there. All in all they didn't get back until almost seven that night. The worse part, at least in Deathscythe's pilot's view, was the fact that they left before breakfast in the morning, hadn't had time to stop for lunch and hadn't yet had dinner! He was hungry! And his friends were very well aware of the fact that he was hungry. As well as the fact that his hair was a mess and would take hours to untangle, the fact that the base hadn't been tough enough to warrant all of them being there, the fact that Deathscythe's right leg hadn't responded as well as it should, and, of course, the fact that he was utterly bored. He was very good at getting facts such as these across, especially when he was far enough away that Heero couldn't hit him to make him shut up.

As they entered the safehouse, Heero started to stalk towards the talkative boy, but a glare from Wufei made him decide against anything physical. Instead he just muttered "Omae o karasu" as he stomped by. Quatre informed the others that dinner would be ready in about an hour and headed towards the kitchen with Trowa right behind him.

"If you go get your brush, I'll help you with your hair," Wufei suggested.

Duo stared at him, shocked.

"If you prefer that I don't, I understand," Wufei said, reading the look wrong.

"No, no," Duo said quickly. "It's just... well, no one's ever... not since..." he stopped babbling and took a deep breath. "I'd appreciate it if you would help me with my hair," he said almost formally.

Wufei nodded and Duo raced upstairs. Less than a minute later, he came back down, stopping halfway. "Um... Fei-chan?" he gulped.

The Chinese pilot had already started up the stairs. He had begun moving as soon as he saw the pale complexion that had just been almost blushing. "What's the matter, Duo?" he asked as he reached him.

"Do you have a really weird sense of the romantic?" Duo's voice gained strength as the color came back to his skin.

"I don't believe so," Wufei said softly. "Why do you ask?"

"You didn't leave me something in my room?" Duo asked.

Wufei shook his head.

"So," Duo said softly, his gaze hardening. "Heero Yuy! I'm going to kill you!" He suddenly shouted.

Heero walked calmly out of his room and stared down at the two boys on the stairs as Quatre and Trowa came out from the kitchen. "What are you babbling about now?" he asked.

"That... that... 'gift' you left in my room!" Duo snarled.

"What are you talking about? I haven't been near your room." Heero glared back.

"Besides, when would he have had time to?" Quatre asked reasonably. "We've all been gone all day."

"Well, *somebody* went into my room, because it sure wasn't like that when I left!"

All traces of levity were swept from everyone's faces at those words. Heero immediately headed towards Duo's room with the other pilots right behind him. Heero flung open the door, and stopped, completely shocked. Quatre gasped, but the others were too busy staring with their mouths open.

Every conceivable surface was covered with flowers, mostly roses in shades of black and blood red. Quatre headed towards one bouquet that held centerstage on the dresser. Something seemed to be different with it. It was as he got closer that he noticed the smell and the liquid shine. At his cry of distress, Trowa came and gathered him up, noticing what had bothered him.

"These have been dipped in blood," he told the others.

Wufei was staring at the writing over the head of the bed. 'My love,' was written there in what looked like red paint, still dripping. He reached out to touch it, then brought it back to smell. "This is blood too," he said, almost too himself. He turned to the others, his eyes blazing with rage. "Whoever did this,*will* be brought to Justice!" he growled out.

Heero had more important things to worry about. "The alarms were all set when we came in. There was no indication that someone had infiltrated the house."

"The blood was still fresh," Wufei said, still seething.

"Quatre, Trowa, check the bottom floor. Wufei, Duo, make sure there's no one on this floor, and check the other rooms. I'll take the attic."

The others nodded and split up to check their assigned areas. Thirty minutes later, they met in the kitchen. They wolfed down sandwiches as they made their reports.

"Mine was the only room that was touched as far as me and Wufei could tell," Duo announced after he swallowed the bite he was eating. Not even seeing his room like that could stop his appetite for long. "But we stopped by my room just before we came down. The blood hadn't even started to dry."

"There's also no sign of blood anywhere except on the wall and flowers. Not even drops. I took a sample for analysis. I thought we could give it to Sally Po, and see what she thought of it." Wufei reported.

"I can have my doctors look at it if you like," Quatre suggested. "Detailed analysis will take a while, but they should be able to tell if it's human or animal very quickly."

Wufei nodded as he handed over the vial.

"Who would do something like this? And why? And for goodness sake, why me?" Duo grouched.

"The watcher," Trowa suggested.

Quatre nodded quickly. "That's what I believe too. But it means he's been watching you on more than just the battlefield. We didn't find anything either. No drops of blood, no smudges, nothing. Whoever it is, he's good."

"But what does he *want*?" Duo almost whined.

"Maybe this is his version of a seduction attempt," Heero suggested with a hint of a smirk.

Wufei glared at him. "That does seem the likeliest scenario, considering he wrote 'my love' on Duo's wall."

"The question is how dangerous is he, and how far will he go?" Quatre reminded them.

"As well as how he got into the house without setting off the alarms," Heero almost growled. He was not happy with the thought that someone had circumvented his security system.

"And do we stay here and try to catch him, or move to a new safehouse, or a combination of the two?" Wufei asked.

"Maybe I should go off by myself for a while," Duo suggested.

"No!" came from three throats. Wufei was a bit more direct. "Not a chance in hell," he growled, reaching over and grabbing Duo's wrist as if to physically keep him in place. "You're going to be where we can watch out for you. This guy's obviously a psycho, there's no way we're going to let him get anywhere near you."

"And if one of you gets hurt because this guy's after me? Uh-uh, I don't think so. I'm not going to let that happen." Duo's voice was adamant and very serious. "I need to take care of this."

"And how are you going to do that? We don't know how he found this place, we don't know how he got in, and we're not absolutely sure what he wants!"

"Yes, we do, he wants me. Let's set a trap, I'll be the bait."

"Not without a whole lot more info than we've got right now, and a way to make it absolutely safe."

"Fei-chan, I'm a Gundam pilot! Absolutely safe is not in my vocabulary."

"No. I forbid it."

The other pilots winced. There were worse things Wufei could have said, they supposed, but right off hand they couldn't think what they might be.

"You do what?" Duo screeched. "Who do you think you are? My #$% keeper? You think that just because we kissed yesterday you can suddenly decide what I can and can't do? I don't %$##$ think so!" Duo shoved his chair back and stood up in Wufei's face. "Just because I love you doesn't give you any rights over me you jerk." He stormed out of the kitchen and out of the house.