Gundam Wing

London Alleyways

Warnings: very slight angst, difficult accents, period fic, AU, intrigue, humor, semi-large age differences, OCs

Chapter 02: The Deal

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"... and you'll never guess what Mr. Hartford did then! It was absolutely wretched!"

Sigh. Heero sat with his hand clasping loosely at the small handle attached to the delicate tea cups that Mrs. Darlian set out especially for his visits. The tea had long ago gone cold, but Heero still continued to sip at it, keeping up the appearance of not being completely bored while he watched the carriages and people mill about on the street outside the window. His weekly visits to this house keep him from loosing his mother's inheritance, but cause him to suffer in unimaginable ways.

It is common knowledge, to Mrs. Darlian, that her wayward nephew, Heero, would be hard-pressed to find a better companion and wife than her own daughter, who consequently was one of the reasons Heero was seriously thinking about denouncing his inheritance and moving back to the country of his birth.

Relena Darlian had been infatuated with Heero since the moment he and his parents stepped into her mother's parlor ten years prior. She had been ten years old, severely spoiled and quite precocious. The sight of the quiet, handsome, and intelligent young man had sent her already flighty head soaring off her shoulders and ever since then she and her mother have had their sights set and their claws sharpened just waiting to hook him.

As unfortunate as that may be for our Heero, he has learned to live with her affections and has learned to tune out her voice quite affectively. Her mother on the other hand, must be treated far more delicately.

Heero's parents were exceptional people from the beginning. They were warm, loving and friendly to all of their acquaintance.

His father was a Japanese businessman with interests in England when he was introduced to his associate's youngest daughter. It was practically love at first sight. They were married within the year and had left for Japan just before she discovered she was pregnant with their first and only son.

Heero's mother was very close to her older sister and it had hurt her deeply to leave London, but she handled the separation quite well with frequent letters back and forth. So, when the news of the birth of Mrs. Darlian's first and only child, Relena, reached her, Heero's mother was overjoyed. Heero, at the tender age of five had no idea what kind of ramifications this event would bring about, and was never the less was apathetic at the prospect of having a cousin.

Of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty and had Heero known what his future would look like he wouldn't have been nearly as indifferent.

In Heero's fifteenth year, he and his parents made the long trip from Japan to London and it was on this trip that he met the ten year old that would follow, to the point of haunt, him, all with stars in her eyes.

Mrs. Yuy's unconditional love for her elder and more manipulative sister was what incidentally caused his strife at his now wise age of twenty-five.

Though Mr. Yuy had left all of his business and wealth to his son, Mrs. Yuy named her sister as her son's guardian till his twenty-six year or his marriage; whichever came first.

Heero may have inherited his heart, eyes, and nose from his mother, but he inherited his unruly hair, mind, and countenance from his father. As a result, he severely wished his mother had not been so trusting of her sister.

After his parent's death, Heero had made the journey from his homeland to his mother's. He had inherited his father's business and was effectively managing both the Japanese end and the British one from his father's town home in London. His aunt, though, chose to black mail, so to speak, her nephew upon his arrival two years ago.

She decreed that he was at her beck and call if he ever had a dream of receiving his mother's inheritance, in the hopes that his weekly visits would throw Relena in his path enough to ware down his resolve and result in him proposing. Not that it was very likely. Heero felt nothing more for Relena than a grudging brotherly affection.

"Heero, isn't that just the most outrageous thing you've ever heard?!"

Relena's voice broke through Heero's carefully constructed façade of interest with the need of his response.

"Yes, quite."

Though the answer was monotonous and dry, devoid of inflection or interest, it seemed to appease Relena, causing her to smile with satisfaction and lean over to snatch another tea cake from the platter on the table.

Mrs. Darlian, a plump and haughty woman, ran her critical eye over her nephew and sipped at her tea. "Heero, dear, you seem to be off in your own little world. Care to share what is on your mind?"

Laughing violet eyes came to mind and Heero quickly dismissed the thought of actually answering that question truthfully. Though still, his aunt demanded an answer.

"I was simply observing the people walking along the street." Hn. Maybe she'll be satisfied.

Relena's disgusted squeak brought Heero's gaze around and he studied her contorted features.

"Can you imagine having to actually walk through the market places? All those common people brushing up against you? Ghastly!" Setting her tea cookie down at the edge of her saucer and wiping her fingers together as if ridding them of "common" germs.

"Yes, dear, quite unseemly, but one must not look down upon those not as fortunate as you." Mrs. Darlian admonished, then looked out the window as a young woman hurried passed holding her bonnet to her head in the wind blowing passed her, she sneered and lightly added, "No matter how unfortunate."

It is true that the Darlian's were filthy rich and also true that Heero Yuy is just as rich, but the aspect that set the two apart was their attitude. Heero, growing up in a different place with different people, and a different culture, had a totally different out look than Mrs. Darlian and her daughter. They had been spoiled by an indifferent husband and father and as a result see themselves in a higher light than those who actually have to use their skills to earn money. Heero, of course, escaped their scorn.

Silently hiding his disgust at his relatives, Heero stood and set his tea down on the table. "I must be going. I have a meeting with an associate." Turning to the slightly put out women, he bowed slightly. "Aunt, Miss Relena."

"Oh! But Heero take the carriage back to your house it's much too... cold for you to walk." Mrs. Darlian cast another slightly reproachful look out the window.

"Quite the contrary, Madam." His patients with them has worn out and all Heero wanted to do was loose himself in the crowd just to rub it into their haughty faces. "I don't mind walking. In fact, I find it refreshing."

With another bow he strode toward the door and left this house, followed by the sounds of his protesting cousin and his slightly indignant aunt. She at least saw the insult and snub for what it was.

He had been walking for ten minutes before he let the scowl on his brow slowly fade. Even now at twenty, Relena hadn't ceased to be proud or ignorant of the rest of the world. She is only concerned with society gossip or the perfect gown for the next party. Shaking his head, Heero gripped his cane and kicked it out in front of him letting the end hit the cobblestones with a click.

His normal routine and train of thought at these weekly visits had been interrupted and it slightly disturbed him.

When his mind would drift it often drifted to tasks that had yet to be finished, or an appointment with his friend and associate, Chang Wufei, perhaps a gathering at his friend's, Trowa Barton and Quatre Winner's, homes, but today and the week before that a pair of keen, clever eyes and a smooth, controlled voice had dominated his thoughts.

His encounter in that alleyway had not left Heero a moment's peace. It seemed like his every thought would steadily drift back to that charismatic urchin sitting atop that wooden crate as if it were a throne. Duo, that was his name; Duo's laughing voice kept taking Heero to that time and place where he first encountered him.

A sense of regret washed over him. A person of Duo's obvious intelligence shouldn't be wasted on the streets. He had tried to think of whether it would be wise to seek out his impromptu rescuer and offer him assistance or to just let the man slowly drift to the back of Heero's memory and be forgotten.

Fifteen minutes of walking through the busy crowd and still not being able to put Duo's memory to rest, found Heero suddenly becoming aware of a disturbance on the path ahead of him.

A group of policemen were wading through the crowd shouting such oddities like: "stop thief!" and "get back here!" It was also upon Heero's awareness of the disturbance that he was barreled into by a strong, thin body.

Reacting instinctually, Heero grabbed hold of the body that had ran into him and looked down into the slightly frightened violet eyes of his savior.

Duo was breathing hard and had something clutched to his chest tightly as he looked up into Heero's surprised eyes. For a moment they stared, neither quite sure what to do at that moment in time. Their surprise and paralysis was shattered when an angered shout echoed from further down the street.

"Oi! Thief! Get back 'Ere!"

Duo jolted out of Heero's grasp and lunged under a nearby cart out of the path way of the enraged authorities.

His heart had never lurched so far into his throat than when he realized who the man he had bumped into was. It was the man from the alley, the dangerous, handsome one.

Tightening his hold on the loaf of bread, Duo concentrated on watching as the policemen ran up to the man he had let walk out of his alley with all his possessions still in his possession. He knew he could keep running if he had to, but he also knew that the chances of them catching him after his collision were severely heightened.

He hadn't had such a close call in a while. He must be slipping, but he couldn't let any of the younger members of his gang pull a job like the one he just did. The more experienced boys were all on other jobs of equal or lesser risk and he refused to let the "kids" of the group participate.

A portly policeman stopped as the others ran ahead and addressed Heero with a tip of his hat. "'Scuse me, Sir, but did you happen to see a thief with a long braid run passed here?"

Duo held his breath. 'Please, please, don' say nothin'.'

Heero set his brow in a withering glare and leveled it on the poor bobby who was still huffing and puffing from the chase. "Yes, I did."

Just passed the policeman, Heero could see Duo from his hunched and curled position underneath the rickety cart and watched him pale in fright. "I believe I saw him run that way." He lifted a gloved hand and gestured off to the left where the other policemen had run.

Glad that he was out from under that fierce glare, the plump bobby nodded in thanks and hurried off at a more reserved pace.

When he was out of sight, Heero knocked on the side of the cart with this black cane. "You can come out. He's gone."

The cart owner huffed indignantly when the scraggily urchin slowly crawled out from under his cart and began to make a stink until Heero pressed a few bills into his hand.

Duo's eyes grew wide at the sight of the money being passed and stood staring till suddenly his elbow had been seized and Heero was hauling him from the main street and down a quieter and less crowded lane.

When they stopped Duo wrenched his arm away from Heero's steely grip and turned his weary and suspicious eyes on his unlikely savior.

The two sized each other up and finally Duo grudgingly nodded his head and said, "Thank ya. I... I owe ya."

"Hn." Heero tapped the pad of his gloved index finger against the red glass bulb atop his cane, thinking. "Call it a debt repaid."

Raising an eyebrow, Duo shifted his weight from foot to foot then finally crossed his arms over his chest, his left hand still clutching at the loaf of bread tightly. The silence began to stretch and feeling exposed out in the open of the street, Duo let his eyes shift over his surroundings. "I be'er ge' goin'. Ya know, mouths ta feed an' all."

"You risked being arrested for a loaf of bread?"

The question made Duo stop in his turn to leave and he glanced over at the wealthy man in front of him. "Ya steal whachta can. Every li'le bi' 'elps."

"Ah." Heero was thinking really hard now. A plan was beginning to formulate. A deal that would possibly satisfy Heero's curiosity and need to see this young man be more than a street urchin and a deal that would feed Duo's many hungry mouths.

"Look, I apprecia'e ya' coverin' fer me, bu' I ain't ganna stan' 'ere an' talk li' gen'elmen." He was getting antsy. Duo knew that many a street urchin would sell themselves for a meal and he knew that many a gentleman would pay, but he wouldn't lower himself to that. He just hopped that his gentleman practiced the finer points of his title.

Nodding, Heero leveled his full and intimidating gaze on the man clothed in dirty rags with soot and grim smudged across his face. "I do not wish to keep you, but I believe that I might be able to alleviate part of your burden if you would be interested."

Unaware of the connotation his words would have on the street weary man before him, Heero was taken aback when Duo's face contorted in fury. "I don' sell me body ta no one!"

His out burst caught the eye of several passers by causing them to cross the street to avoid the two men.

Eyes widening, Heero took a step back and lifted his hands in a defensive motion, his right still holding his cane. "I did not mean to insinuate you would. I was just going to offer you a job... of sorts." His head tilted to the right in his uncertainty as to how to classify his proposition.

Pointing a, once again, outraged finger at the dangerous man before him, Duo ignored his own warnings and sense of self preservation as he yelled, "I know wha' kinda jobs men li' ya offer ta men li' me, an' I wan' nottin' ta do wit' 'em!"

"You misunderstand me." Heero lowered his hands and straightened his posture, bringing his full height and air of wealth to the fore front. "I'm offering an opportunity to ascend from the streets." Before Duo's mouth could open in another shout, Heero added, "I promise it is a legitimate proposition. Your virtue will not be compromised."

Duo snorted. Heero continued on, he had the man's attention he just had to keep from setting off his hair trigger temper. "I'm offering you a deal." Duo's eyebrow rose. "It will be an opportunity for you and, if all works out, your gang to gain financial support and education."

Ah, he had said the magic words. Duo's eyebrows creased in thought. His boys were hungry and out of all of them only he and Solo could read. It would have been easier to live on the streets if he had let them sell their bodies like so many others did, but if you wished to stay in Duo's gang you didn't walk the streets like a harlot.

He desperately wanted what was best for his gang and he, somehow, sensed that this strange, dangerous, handsome, man could provide that.

With a still weary glint in his beautiful, astute eyes, Duo looked his companion up and down. "Ifin' I was ta agree ta this deal, wha' would I be doin'?"

Slipping his hand into his pocket, Heero pulled out a small card with his name and address printed elegantly across it. "You don't have to decide whether or not you want to accept now. If you're interested come to my home," Heero handed him the card, "and we can discuss the terms."

Duo took the card. The difference between the cream colored paper and his blackened fingers, with jagged dirty nails was almost shocking. Pushing down the sudden embarrassment at his state of dress, Duo read the elegant script.

Heero O. Yuy

121 Winged Lane

London, England

Heero didn't miss the slight crease in the dirt covered, but surely creamy brow of the man in front of him and suddenly realized his error. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you might not be able to read."

As the black gloved hand began to reach and take the card back and find an alternative means of conveying the address, Duo snatched the card out of Heero's reach and shoved it into the patch work pocket of his plum colored trousers.

"'Eero O. Yuy. One twe'y one, Wing-e' Lane. London, Englan'." Accent, thick and stilted, but comprehensible. Heero let his surprise show across his handsome face. With a slight frown, Duo acknowledged, "I can read."

"Hn." Heero erased all emotion from his features as he withdrew his hand and reached into his coat pocket to check the time on his silver pocket watch. Finding him self already late for his engagement, he tucked his cane under his arm and straightened as a sign of his impending departure.

Looking once more at the grungy, but handsome man before him, Heero said, "If you would like to discuss my offer I will be expecting you at three o'clock, tomorrow afternoon." Bowing, Heero dismissed himself. "Good day."

Brushing passed Duo to walk back down the street, he heard the young man shout jauntily after him, "Pleasan' day ta ya, Govna'!"

It was only after Heero had made it halfway down his street toward his front door, when reaching down to check the time, he realized his pocket watch, chain and all, was missing from his coat pocket.

"You're late, Yuy." Chang Wufei was always a punctual person. Tardiness was quite literally one of his most hated pet peeves, next to injustice and dishonor.

Shrugging off his coat and handing it, his cane, and his gloves to his butler Heero responded with, "I got side tracked."

"Did that old windbag finally beat you into submission and force you to propose to Miss Relena?" Sometimes Wufei's sense of humor left much to be desired.

"Gods, no! That will never happen. Besides, I only have a couple more months till my birthday. After that they can't touch me." Heero stepped over to the crystal decanter sitting atop the wooden table at one side of the parlor. Pouring himself and his friend a glass each he popped the glass stopper back in and turned to face his stiff companion.

They had become fast friends when Heero moved into his father's house on Winged Lane. Wufei, his traditional father and uncle all lived a few houses down and at the threat of being impertinent called on Heero within the month of his arrival. They soon became kindred spirits and understanding companions. Their Asian up bringing and English education and propriety made for a lot in common.

Chang Wufei had been traveling back and forth between England and China almost all his life. His clan had business investments in both lands and he accompanied his father, uncle and grandfather on their business trips from the time he was ten to learn the way the business worked. He, like Heero, was unimaginably mature for his young age and found society entertainment severely boring. Both men preferred to discuss politics, business, philosophy, science, industry; anything really to going out into popular society.

These days Wufei spent more time in Heero's home than he did his own. The old men were staunch in their contradictory traditionalism and it weighed heavily on him.

Taking the snifter from his Japanese friend's hand, Wufei looked him up and down. "You have something pressing on your mind. I can tell."

Both men stepped to the couch and chair set in the center of the room and sipped at their drinks for a time.

Finally Heero drifted from his thoughts and glanced at his friend. "I told you about the gang of street urchins that tried to mug me, didn't I?"

"Don't tell me you almost got mugged again." Wufei let his dissatisfaction with his friend show in his raised eyebrow.

Snorting lightly, Heero let a smirk drift over his handsome mouth. "No, but I did run into the leader of the gang on my way here." Then the smirk widened. "Actually, he ran into me."

Wufei crossed his legs and rested his glass on his knee in a position that said, "Do continue."

Mirroring his friend's position, Heero threw an arm over the back of the couch. "I was walking down Portobello and he barreled into me trying to run from a group of police chasing after him."

"I hope you turned him over to the authorities." Wufei sniffed.

Heero scoffed. "Of course I didn't. I owed him for calling his hounds off." Wufei glared at him as if it was his fault the man had turned to a life of crime. "It would have been dishonorable of me to let them catch him when I had a debt to repay."

Wufei conceded with an elegant sip from his snifter. Honor and Justice were magic words in the Chinese man's vocabulary.

"I had been thinking about him for sometimes now." Heero let his brow furrow in concentration. "He is too intelligent and charismatic to waste away on the street like he is."

"There is nothing you can do about that, Yuy." Switching his legs Wufei glanced at his friend in an indulgent scolding way. Heero had a softer spot than he did, but Wufei wouldn't let Heero take the problems of a street urchin upon his shoulders with every thing else he must weather. "It is unfortunate that he, or any man, must steal to live, but there really is nothing you can do."

"That's just the thing, Fei," Heero sat forward as if imploring his friend to understand, "I can do something about it."

Scowling, he hated any deviation from his given name, Wufei scolded his friend. "I understand that you feel indebted to him, however useless his interference may have been considering your training, but you cannot help those that do not want to be helped."

Leaning back again Heero let his legs drift further apart in a more comfortable position. "That's where you're wrong. It isn't just him." Wufei let his brow rise in a demand for clarification. "He takes care of the whole gang, Fei." Heero let his hands move as he spoke, an old habit he inherited from his mother. "I'm almost positive that there are more boys in his gang than just the ones that cornered me in the alley."

"All the more reason to forget about this man and move on."

"You don't understand the dynamic of a gang." Heero pointed out with satisfaction as if he had just won the nonexistent argument.

"I'm certain that I don't, but that has nothing to do with a bunch of ruffian that tried to mug you." He was reproachful. The situation was so cut and dry to him that he couldn't possible see where Heero was going with it.

Sighing in slight frustration Heero leaned forward and propped his elbows up on his knees while he let the fingers of his right hand begin to curl the hair just behind his ear. "In a street gang only the senior most members of the gang participate in the major operations. The younger members stick to pick-pocketing and minor theft. The more dangerous the job the older you have to be before your gang leader will let you participate."

Wufei snorted as if to say, "Get to the point."

Heero let his slight excitement show through his voice. He had always been a curious child and he loved to research many different subjects. The most recent of which happened to be gang dynamics and strategy. "When Duo's gang tried to mug me, there were only five of them. A small gang, comparatively speaking. The youngest looked all of nine years old and Duo, the definite leader, looked younger than you and I."

It had always fascinated Wufei when his friend got that light in his eyes like he had the knowledge that would solve the world's problems. He let his friend continue without interrupting. This was a rare and special moment to be treasured, not shattered; however misguided it may be.

Taking a breath Heero continued. "Judging by the tactics that they utilized it would be assumed that they try and avoid physical altercation if possible. They are a young, but clever gang. The separation from youngest to oldest would suggest that they had more, younger members off pulling small time jobs that would be less risky."

"As fascinating as that is, Yuy, what is your point?" Loathed to end the moment as Wufei was, he was also getting frustrated.

Calming his excitement, Heero straightened his posture and finally got to the point. "From their actions, I believe that they are harboring young children. The oldest is Duo, the Leader and he is young for a gang member in general. It would be an injustice to let not only his talent, but that of the other members of his young gang to be wasted on the streets when they could be productive members of society."

Wufei gave a long suffering sigh. "I understand that you want to help these boys, but I don't understand how you would do that."

Heero let a small smirk spread over his lips. "When Duo and I bumped into each other today, I offered him an opportunity for him and his gang."

Letting his skepticism seep through, Wufei questioned, "What kind of opportunity?"

"We'd help each other out. I need a distraction for my aunt and he needs to care for his gang." Wufei's eyes light with sudden comprehension. "My aunt's ball is in two months and I'm certain she and Relena are going to be pushing me to propose so I figured that if I add an unknown variable to the mix it will affectively throw a wrench into the works."

"You're going to teach this street urchin to be a gentleman?"

Nodding his head, Heero took a satisfied sip of his snifter. "We'll teach him to be a gentleman; teach him to be the Earl from Austria with a sizable fortune. We can introduce him out in society progressively through the time leading up to the ball. He'll be so convincing a gentleman that even my aunt will be persuaded; affectively taking her attention away from me and placing it onto Duo."

Wufei looked skeptical. "This will keep your aunt from shoving Relena at you?"

"It won't stop her from pushing for marriage, but it will distract her enough from my birthday to keep her from pulling an underhanded move that could keep me from my inheritance." Heero scowled. His aunt was not an honest person; Also quite the gold digger.

Nodding, Wufei sipped at his drink. A thought popped into his head. "I see how you are to benefit from such a deal, but how will this street urchin?"

Heero frowned in thought. He wanted to benefit and he wanted Duo and his gang to benefit. Looking up, Heero said, "If he can affectively convince the entire party at the ball that he is indeed an Earl from Austria then I will assist him and his gang with education and jobs."

"Yuy, I know you can afford it, but what if you aren't able to 'transform' him and your plan fails?" Wufei was a pessimist.

"I will support them regardless. I don't think I would be able to abandon them." His demeanor had calmed to the point of indifference. Heero wasn't a dishonorable man. He knew Duo wouldn't take charity and he knew he wanted to help Duo get off the streets while he also knew that he wanted his aunt off his back. It was hopeless to dissuade him from a path once he had his mind set to it.

He was sure that he would be able to transform Duo, but even if he was unable to he still wanted to get those boys off the streets into a civilized society. Yes, he would educate them regardless of the out come, but Duo won't have to know that.

Glancing at his silent friend, Heero asked, "You are going to help me, aren't you?"

A deep scowl appeared on Wufei's brow, but he nodded stiffly. "Yes, I will help you."

Giving his annoyed friend a small smile Heero leaned back into his seat and lifted his half empty glass up to his lips and took a rather large drink. The next couple of months were going to be very interesting. His stomach fluttered and Heero, turned to look out his parlor windows to the street, stroking his empty watch pocket. Yes, very interesting.

A/N I hope ya'll liked it! Please Review. Criticism is welcome!

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