Chapter 5

Smoke was bellowing out of the building in clouds that were rising up to the blue sky. All of the building's occupants were now out on the street, watching their building burn. Firefighters were running in and out of the building, trying to put out the fire that had suddenly started.

Rumors were going around of how the building actually caught fire. "It was faulty wiring. I bet my month's salary that was it." "I heard it was from a lit cigarette. Someone threw it away, while still lit, in a garbage can." "Culver was playing with matches again. Mark my words. This is all his doing."

Wufei and Heero stood back from the crowd, neither saying a word. They both just silently watched the building as the flames were starting to be controlled.

"Idiots, all of them," Wufei muttered while he pinched the top of his nose.

"Hn," Heero agreed.

Wufei suddenly realized something. "Where's Maxwell?"

"Somewhere in the crowd."

Wufei sent Heero a dirty look. "Jee, that really helps." He better not be making matters worse, he thought.

Heero only smirked.

"Any idea where your boyfriend is in that crowd?" Wufei tried again.

"No."

Wufei almost face faulted.

Soon, all the flames were under control and becoming smaller by the minute.

"How are my two best buddies in the whole universe?" a voice called out.

Both Heero and Wufei refused to turn around to acknowledge Duo. "Maxwell," said Wufei while Heero replied with "Hn."

Duo joined the two, standing by Heero. He was carefully studying the two in a way that they wouldn't know they were being studied. The 'tricks' he learned from L2 still came in handy. It just so happened that now was one of those times.

"So, what have you heard? About the fire?" Duo asked.

"That either an individual idiot, or group of idiots, lit the offices on fire. Thank Kami-sama that this wasn't your doing in my kitchen back at the apartments," said Wufei."

Duo froze for all of two seconds. If one wasn't watching, they never would have known. Too bad that Heero and Wufei were able to catch that little slip and that Duo wasn't able to stop the seed of doubt that settled in their minds.

"Duo, do you know anything about this fire?" Heero asked.

"What do you mean?" Duo asked.

"No sidestepping the question, Maxwell. What do you know, specifically, about this fire?"

Duo knew his friends caught onto something that he'd preferred that they didn't. He would need to be careful from now on. Not only did he have to fool one, but two Gundam Pilots. This might be a bit tricky.

"What do you know?" Duo asked, fishing for information.

Wufei was scowling, arms crossed over his chest. Heero had his eyes trained on the sole braided, and sometimes idiot, pilot. His stance said that he wanted the truth, now, and he was going to use any method he possibly could to get it.

Duo, almost unnoticeable, gulped.

Heero and Wufei quickly met each other's gaze. That was all that was needed. They were positive now. Somehow, Maxwell had been the cause of all this.

"How?" Wufei didn't elaborate.

"You know, don't you?" Duo asked.

"Who did this, yes. Why and how, no," Heero responded. After all, he wasn't very happy that Duo had set fire to their contractor for this mission, before the mission had even really started. Worse off, it was done in Preventers Head Quarters.

"How in the seven hells did you ever manage this Maxwell?!" Wufei was fighting to stay calm. "And don't try to pass this off as the mission for the prank."

Duo looked around. "Are you sure you want to talk about this here? There sure are a lot of people about." He was stalling for time.

"And all of them are gossiping on what they thought happened," said Wufei.

"If any should overhear, they will merely think it's also gossip being passed here," Heero added. "Now Duo."

Duo sighed before telling his story.

(Flash back)

Duo was walking down one of the many hallways in the Preventer HQ. Heero and Wufei were pooling over a map and other documents that were important to both of their missions. While Duo knew that he should be interested, he just couldn't make himself to be.

While on his walk, Duo passed a small staff kitchenette. It had a refrigerator, a stovetop, oven, and microwave. There were also a few cupboards. Having nothing better to do, Duo stopped to explore.

"Yes!" Duo nearly shouted. He found a package or two of Hot Cocoa Mix and a tea kettle.

Feeling proud of his discovery, and of the fact, alone, that he was in a kitchen with no one telling him to be careful or he was going to blow something up. No one was around to even try to get him to leave. In fact, no one had the right to tell him to leave this kitchenette. Damn it, he wasn't banned from here yet and he planned on fully appreciating that.

Duo filled the kettle with water before putting it on the stove to boil. He then went to find the mug cups. As he was searching through a few cupboards, Duo never noticed the smoke that filled the room, nor the hot pad and dish towel catch fire. He was too busy trying to find that mug.

The flame grew bigger, crawling towards the wall that was ten inches away from it. Now this wall had hanging pot holders, hot pads, dish towels, and wash clothes, all dry and suitable kindle to help the fire grow.

And they did.

At the shrill sound of the smoke detector going off, Duo swore that he wasn't about to be able to enjoy a nice cup of Hot Cocoa. He then turned around. Frozen on the spot for ten seconds, Duo finally swore, loudly, as he figured out this was all his fault.

Again.

Why did this always have to fire trucking happen to him? It wasn't like he was trying to set this place on fire. Oh no, if that had been the case, a nice big boom would have also come along.

BOOM!!!

CRASH!!!

Duo winced and cringed in a little. He had spoken too soon. Thankfully the shooting oven door had barely missed him.

"Maybe I should get out of here."

A light fixture fell not even a foot from where he was standing.

"The sooner, the better."

(End flash back)

Wufei looked at Duo. He just looked at Duo. He had so many words that he wanted to call his companion that it would take the rest of the day to even get through half if it, the half that Duo would understand. The rest would be in Chinese and Mandarin and limited Russian.

How, on his first real day in the office, had Maxwell set the place ablaze?

"You are to never step foot in my kitchen, ever! I don't care for what reason, be it a cup of tea or someone dying in there, you. can. not. go. in! In fact, you are not even allowed to go within five feet of it." Wufei was getting a hold on his temper. It would not be good to let it rein free here.

Duo blinked. "Y-you serious… Tell me you're joking. I was just trying to make a cup of cocoa."

"And burnt the building down in the process. Duo, new rule. You are not allowed to go into any kitchen, unsupervised by at least five people. Also, you will need ten people with you before you even attempt to do something. Plus, these people need to be creditable not only in my eyes, but that also of Yuy's."

Duo's eyes had gone wide, unbelieving. His jaw was slightly opened. "You don't mean that. Heero, tell me he doesn't mean that!"

Heero looked down at his lover while taking both of Duo's hands in his own. "Duo," Heero paused a moment, trying to think out the best way to word what he had to say.

"Heero," hope was growing in Duo's eyes.

"You're not to use the kitchen here at work." There, Heero has said it. And now to wait for the reaction.

Blink.

Blink blink.

That didn't compute with Duo's brain. "Wha did ya say? I missed it."

Wufei saved Heero from repeating himself. "Yuy said that you, Duo Maxwell, the great Shinigame, all time super preveter, couldn't use the kitchen in HQ."

Duo looked at the two of them, eyes slightly glittery. "But it was just a cup of Hot Cocoa. I wasn't trying to set the place ablaze."

Heero wanted to sigh, but he held it back. "We know that Duo."

"Then why are you doing this?" Duo asked once more.

"To protect you, and us, from yourself."

"Heero!" Duo couldn't believe his ears.

"But if your lucky, maybe Wufei will teach you how to use a kitchen."

"I know how to use a kitchen, thank you very much!"

Heero continued, like he had not been interrupted. "That way, you will be allowed to go in and actually use a kitchen."

"The hell!" Wufei shouted.

"What!" shouted Duo.

By now there was a group of people looking at the trio. After Wufei growling at them, they all turned away and found something else for them to be occupied with.

"Why would I want to teach Maxwell how to use the kitchen?" Wufei growled out.

"So you won't have to worry about him blowing up your kitchen," Heero stated, as if it was as clear as day.

But before any more questions could be thrown, one of the female officers wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, and she ran smack into Heero.

Now, normally this wouldn't be such a big deal. Usually the party of the first would apologize to the party of the second for running into them. After that, the second party would say forget about it, that they're okay and ask if the first party is okay. Then, the two would laugh it off and go on their separate ways.

Too bad that wasn't what happened.

No, Heero had to do something that was unexpected, something that no one would ever guess to happen.

Heero turned into a cat.

"The hell!" Wufei shouted once more.