A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. :D They keep me writing. Chapter 10, annoyingly, spread into chapters 10, 11 and 12! Chapters 13 and 14 are written too. Chapter 15 is being fun to write, but any encouragement welcome. :) I'll post 11 soon.

Not BETA-ed, so please excuse any errors. :)

Maxwell-Lives: Your reviews are fantastic. And you've given me an idea for a major plot point, so thank you. :)

Mist Shadow: Thank you - Methos's first scene is written. So it'll be coming up soon. I'm having great fun writing the old guy. :) You'll see Duo's frustration soon. :P

Sakiku: Assume Duncan has several spare sets of clothes. :P Duncan IS pissed at Duo. But it's a bit awkward to explain it - hopefully he loses it a bit here.

Chapter 10

After a few days of being around Duo constantly, Duncan was beginning to find himself worn out. The violet eyed boy was pure energy, moving from place to place, situation to situation with ease, blending into the background when his friend needed him to be subtle, and being brash and obvious when that was required, all the time maintaining an easy friendship with the blonde that he almost envied. Worn out, but increasingly finding himself enjoying the young man's company and presence, although a small part of him asked how the hell he could feel comfortable around the man who'd killed his best friend.

Every day had brought a new surprise from the boy, from an in-depth knowledge of car mechanics when the car broke down, to an appreciation of music when Trowa invited Quatre to a concert playing at the local opera house. Oh, Duo had groaned and pouted over going to listen to what he stated amounted to caterwauling, but sitting in the box behind the two other pilots, he'd seen the man tapping along to the rhythm, closing his eyes and moving his head gracefully in time to the music. He'd found he even missed his partner for the day after the party when Duo had gone in to have his scars removed, and he'd chatted with Quatre in their office while the CEO kept up to date with his companies and he attempted to catch up on some work. Luckily the operation was a minor one, and the American was able to return to work the next day, his pale skin free of the laser burns once more

Occasionally, in the evenings, alone in the hotel room adjacent to Quatre's, he'd stare out into the darkness, allowing the memories of his last real group of true friends to swirl around him, taking him back to the years when Richie's bright smile flashed through the antiques shop, Amanda constantly caused him trouble, and Methos... Methos was alive. He often ended up losing himself until the small hours of the morning, forcing himself to greet Duo the next morning with a smile until the boy's infectious cheerfulness stole the sadness from his mind. He knew he was suppressing his anger at Methos's death, but the pilot was a mortal, not in the Game and regardless of his own feelings, he kept telling himself that he couldn't do anything about it.

It was almost a disappointment to get a telephone call one afternoon from the Commander ordering them back to headquarters immediately and informing them that River and Steel would be at the hotel shortly to take over Quatre's bodyguard duties.

A quick debrief later and they both received hugs from the young businessman, who admitted with a grimace that it looked like he'd have to return to the colonies that afternoon anyway due to a problem with a major contract, so it was really no problem that they'd been recalled. Duo couldn't help wondering if his friend had engineered the problem just so that they wouldn't feel bad about abandoning him.

Shortly after they'd waved the Sandrock pilot's limo away, they found themselves sitting in the Commander's office with a irritable Une, who was drumming her fingers on the desk in frustration.

"I wouldn't have pulled you away, but something's come up that requires your... special skills." she said, glancing at Duo to emphasise her point. "To be brief. For some time there have been rumours of a group of people who feel that anyone who abandoned the Earth for space shouldn't have any power over the running of the Earth, and are targeting ESUN executives from the Colonies. We now have confirmation that this group exists, and that they're growing, but until we get some more information on them - other than the propaganda that they're spreading - we are not sure how to proceed. Your mission is to investigate the

organisation, in partnership with Intelligence, find out where their current base of operations is, then go in and appropriate what information you can on their aims and objectives, as well as placing surveillance devices. This is not a red mission."

"Understood," Duncan nodded, "I assume that Intelligence will have the file so far?"

Grimacing, Une patted a slim folder on the desk, pushing it over towards her agents. "That is the sum total of our intelligence. They're good at keeping things quiet and we haven't managed to infiltrate them either as we don't know where they are. Your primary initial task is to follow up on the leads in there."

"So, if we can't infiltrate, how're we supposed to get any info on them?" Duo asked, flicking through the folder, "Computers and surveillance I assume?"

Une sighed, pushing her hair back from her face, "If you can infiltrate eventually, then that would be wonderful, but otherwise, yes, computers and surveillance, hence your suitability for this mission. You are not to put yourself at risk. I wish I could give you a simpler mission, however your talents in computers and security are the best available for fieldwork, Night, and Cloud isn't without his own skills."

"I assume you need the information as soon as possible?" Duncan's voice was wry as they both stood, the ex-pilot tucking the folder under his arm.

"Yesterday would be good," came the tired reply, "Last month even better."

"We'll do our best." Duo promised as they left.

Back in their office, the violet eyed man slumped down in his chair, scanning the sparse information with a growl. There was precisely nothing of any use in the file save a few possible meeting places and a couple of photographs. If he didn't know better, he'd think that Preventer intelligence was useless, but if this was all they'd come up with, then this was all that was available.

"So?"

Looking up at Mac, he sighed, pushing the folder over to the Scot's desk. "Barely anything. Whoever's running this joint is good at hiding what they're doing." Waiting the few moments for his partner to scan the contents, he continued, "So, where do we start with this? I'm assuming that you've got some kind of plan?"

Flicking through the data again, the Scot shook his head, "We're going to have to start this one almost from scratch I'm afraid, although at least there's a few possible leads on locations to watch." Unclipping a few leaves from the folder, he passed them back to the other man, "Look up these places."

With a nod, Duo glanced over the areas, pulling up a map on his computer. Quickly plotting the sites on the map, he looked up thoughtfully. "They're all in a similar radius around Brussels - are there any other connections?"

"Intelligence already thought of that," Mac replied, reading from another sheet, "They're all within the Europa area, all within a quick flight from ESUN HQ and all within a similar radius with the HQ in the centre. They're also all basic average houses, and they're all empty. It appears to have taken Intelligence a fair bit of work to connect them to the people we're looking for as they're owned under different names, by people who seem to have no connection to each other and who, when run through the various databases Preventer have access to, don't exist."

"Oh, great, so we've just got to wait for them to act and then play catch up?" the Deathscythe pilot muttered with a groan, "Or have you got any better ideas?"

The Scot nodded, "Try and track down this guy," he tossed one of the few photographs and a memory stick towards Duo, "As I said, there's been nothing in the standard databases, but he's turned up at several of the houses according to Intelligence and is the one link we have. The folder claims there's some CCTV footage on the stick to look at as well. Meanwhile I'm going to try and figure out some possible locations for future meetings based on the data we've got, and I'll contact Intelligence to find out who we'll be liasing with."

"Assuming they don't decide to change their pattern suddenly - it's what I'd do, keep us guessing." Looking over the blurred photo, he grimaced - there really wasn't anything distinctive about the man, average height, average build, shoulder length brown hair in a non-descript style, and generic clothing. Dammit, the guy was absolutely bloody unforgettable.

"Let's just hope that doesn't happen." Mac frowned, "We can't afford to let a potential terrorist organisation get too active. What Une didn't mention was that they've already attempted to take out one of the L1 senators, they only failed due to Preventer bodyguards. Agent Sand lost his life to that attempt. and there's no doubt they'll try again soon."

Duo's head shot up as a sudden thought striking through his mind. "Think they'll go after Q?"

"It's possible," Mac admitted reluctantly, "he does live on the Colonies, even though his appreciation of Earth is well known."

Well, if that wasn't incentive to find the people responsible, then not much would be in his opinion. Plugging the memory stick in, he settled down to watch the captured video, intent on catching anything, the slightest clue, as to how they could prevent the potential chaos that the secretive new group could cause.

Hours later, the sky had grown dark and the cleaners had been in and gone when he lifted his head from studying close-ups from video stills and trawling the appropriate databases, his eyes aching from searching the pixels for anything that would give him a clue to the man's identity and from there his associates.

"Anything?" Duncan's voice held the tiredness that Duo felt, the Scot looking up from his own pile of papers, the notebook by his side covered with scribbled writing. "I've managed to track down the accounts that the houses the meetings were held in were rented by, and I need to contact the world bank to do some further tracking once I've got clearance from Intel."

"Intel already searched the Preventer watch list and our guy isn't on it so I've been going through the local law enforcement watchlists across Europe. The CCTV pictures aren't clear enough for a precise match on the databases so it's down to manual comparisons." Duo sighed, shutting the computer down with a frustrated poke, "Guess what? No luck so far. Tomorrow I'll try going through the partial matches, but that's enough for today."

The Scot nodded, switching his own machine off. "Agreed - Intel won't get back to me about the banking access until tomorrow anyway. Planning on hitting the gym tonight?"

"I could do with the stress relief." Standing and grabbing his sports bag from behind his desk, the braided pilot was only a step behind his partner as they escaped the office.

The gym was quiet when the two agents made their way out to the mats to warm up. Not that the emptiness was surprising, in Duo's opinion, looking at the time most sensible people would be at home having their evening meals or in bed at this hour. But, hey, he'd never been one for sensible, and he wasn't about to pass up a chance to appreciate a half naked Mac.

Following a brief warm up, Duo moved off to the side and the exercise bikes, watching in the mirror as Duncan begun his own workout. They'd both been slacking on the exercise routines while bodyguarding Quatre, the Arabian preferring a light job around the area in the morning and none of them had wanted to go into the Preventer gym and deal with the questioning gazes that were inevitable wherever the young blonde went, it had been bad enough with the CEO in their office earlier in the week with people peering through the door. Duncan had told him that Dree had stopped by, much to Quatre's delight, but that had been the only welcome interruption that day.

He turned his attention towards the bike, setting the machine to an appropriate level and trying to concentrate on the exercise, ignoring the complaints in his muscles. He couldn't help glancing up at Duncan's small grunts of effort as the other man shadowboxed against an invisible opponent. God, the guy was gorgeous.

A few miles of peddling later, he watched as Mac grabbed a few bundles from his sports bag. One, he could recognise as the wooden sword Mac had used against 'Fei, the other smaller bundles turned out to be some polished wooden daggers as the cloth fell away.

"You said you were trained in daggers?" Duncan asked, holding out the daggers towards him.

Nodding, he slipped off the bike, grabbing a quick drink as he headed over. "Yep." Reaching out for the wooden blades, he studied them carefully, checking for any nicks in the wood or possible splinters. "Do you have every kind of wooden weapon or something, Mac?" The blades were excellent quality with no flaws that Duo's expert eyes could discern, and, from a quick heft, weighted well.

"Only a few - I dislike practising with live weapons, so I had these crafted." Duncan replied, checking over his own blade. It was true, he'd sparred with a few Immortals on the Colonies, but it had always been a wary exercise, relying on friendship and the truce against taking heads, and the few Immortals he'd taught basic sword skills to had been no risk to his neck. There was no way he would spar with mortals with metal weapons, the Immortal healing ability would have made the slightest nick a problem. The wooden weapons were older than he was going to admit to his young partner though.

Duo nodded, making a few skilled passes through the air with the blades, feeling his body relaxing into a combat readiness. With a nod, Duncan moved into a similar stance with the sword, before launching into a easy attack . In moments both of the men had lost themselves in the flow of attack, guard, counter-attack, a silent waltz that sped up as they took each other's measure and then moving into a steady rhythm that was designed to give both of them a work out as well as hone their weapon skills.

In moments, the Scot had judged the skill of his opponent, although how the boy had defeated Methos he simply didn't know. He knew was holding back slightly, natural caution making him unwilling to show his full ability, even to a mortal, and while they both offered and parried blows with ease, the pilot seemed to be putting in more effort than he did. For a second he debated dropping the facade, letting his sudden anger over his old friend's death flow and turn his partner into a small stain on the floor; but the same wariness forced him to only push slightly more, causing the violet eyes to narrow.

Eventually the whirlwind ceased and the combatants separated, both of them panting from the exertion, and silently acknowledging each other's blows on their bodies. The pilot had been surprised to score a few blows on his partner, the man obviously not being used to fighting an opponent with shorter blades which had allowed him to use his speed and agility to their full advantage, however he felt rather bruised by the consistent marks left on him by the Scot's impressive skills. Allowing his eyes to rake over his opponent's body, he hid the sudden wave of lust he felt by giving a graceful and over-exaggerated bow. "I believe you won that bout."

Duncan raised an eyebrow, toweling the sweat off his body, "And how do you judge that?"

"You scored more hits than I did." he replied, allowing himself to look up cheekily through his lashes. "Well, solid ones, mine were more grazes."

"Any of which would have drawn blood," the Scot shrugged, turning away as he took the pro-offered daggers and rewrapping them, using the distraction to tap down any lingering resentment. "I'd be interested in learning that counter you did when I twisted round and came in from the side, although I don't usually use daggers."

Duo grinned, "You might want to learn a few dagger skills - best way to learn to counter them. Guessed that you didn't know that many, you guard too far out and not against my off hand."

Nodding in acknowledgement of the criticism, the older man gestured over to the treadmills. "Tomorrow, I'll start showing you some sword skills?"

"Sure."

Then there was just the pounding of their feet on the machines.

The next day, Duo was almost hitting the table in frustration as the partial matches threw up multiple possibilities, several hundred in fact, on the various databases Preventer had access to. The law enforcement ones had proved pretty much pointless except for one possible suspect. Half of the new crop he could eliminate immediately due to current states of imprisonment, known allegiances and dates of death. The other half, however, needed each of their backgrounds combing in detail, slow and painstaking work tracing each person through the various systems across Earth and the Colonies, occasionally dealing with petty bureaucrats who heard his voice and assumed that a young man like him was mistaken in wanting access to highly secure information. The third time it'd happened, he'd put the idiot on hold while he let rip with a torrent of curse words before patching the phone through to Une's office and putting the phone down. Email was slower, but definitely the way to go.

Duncan appeared to be having similar problems, the odd Gaelic swear word drifting over the desks. While Intel had sent him the authorisations he needed, the world bank and the local banks were protective of their data, and while they were willing to work with Preventer, the organisation was still new enough to have trouble with the occasional administrator.

"Paris." the Scot's voice was satisfied, and Duo looked up to meet his partner's brown eyes, "Center your searches on Paris, that's where most of the money has come from. I'll need more time to track names and precise accounts though, who ever's been doing this has been clever about it, it's a tangle of deposits, transfers, shares, cross border accounts and several other things that I'm certain were made illegal centuries ago."

Nodding, the pilot quickly refined his search parameters, the list of potential targets narrowing considerably to those who had contacts or connections to the French capital, several of them having already been eliminated. Settling down to his task, he began scanning the databases for more information on them, checking the flight records for anything that would put them in the various locations at the right time when the meetings had apparently taken place.

Eventually he lent back, his usual mental alarm going off before he even looked at the clock. Glancing over at his partner whose hair was rather cutely falling over his face as he studied his screen intently, he smiled before interrupting the man. "Hey, Mac, lunch time?"

"Already?"

"Yeah, feel like seeing what the restaurant on the fourth floor has decided constitutes food today?" Duo was already standing, even the prospect of the psudo-food was more interesting than tracing Sitta Lukas around Sanc and Nordia.

Duncan grimaced, "It can't be worse than they served the day Quatre was here - he came right back to the office and ordered take-out. That was interesting to pick up from reception."

Smirking, the pilot followed his partner out the door, "Given Q's refined tastebuds I'm not surprised. Did you know that during the war, he attempted to order French takeout from a posh restaurant to a safehouse? I believe Trowa ended up trying to cook spaghetti instead and burnt it."

On that note, they made their way up to the restaurant, which, Duo noted with relief, was serving pizza, which they surely couldn't mess up, right? Ordering a ham and pineapple one, he collected it from the outlet with a coke and made his way to a free table, ignoring a few waves from other colleagues. It had been a while since he'd had the chance to talk to Duncan outside the office without either Q or his other friends around for almost a week - the gym didn't count, he was far too busy either sparring or drooling there.

The object of his desire was making his own way to the table, another slice of pizza and a bottle of water on his tray. "That stuff will rot your teeth." Mac muttered, sitting down as Duo took a gulp from his drink.

"Says the guy who has to have three sugars in his coffee to wake up in the morning." Having had to stay in rooms adjoining Quatre's while on duty, he'd quickly noticed a way to tease the other man in response to his comments about his own drinks.

"Yes, well."

The Scot took a bite of his pizza, and the braided man grinned to himself as Mac focused his attention on his food, and digging into his own meal, he took the opportunity to study the man's face through his lashes, enjoying being able to watch him. He wasn't sure if his partner had noticed his interest, although he was aware he'd not been great at veiling it so it wouldn't surprise him. Nothing had been mentioned though and if Duncan wasn't going to complain, then there was no reason to stop, right?

"So, you mentioned you'd show me some sword moves tonight?" he asked casually, picking up a piece of pineapple that had fallen on the plate with his long fingers, slowly biting into it and feeling a dribble of juice down his chin, which he promptly wiped away with the same fingers, trying to make the motion appear innocent.

The raised eyebrow from his partner told him he'd not been entirely successful, but there was no comment as the man nodded. "I've brought a spare bokken with me. I believe Dragon is back from his mission now, so he may also be joining us in the gym."

"'Fei? I know he's a good fighter and all, but why bring him into it?" He couldn't help but feeling disappointed, he'd rather enjoyed the one on one time with the Scot and couldn't help a faint tinge of jealousy curling within him at the idea of sharing the time with the Asian pilot.

Duncan finished off his water, and Duo couldn't help watching the movement of his throat as he swallowed, head back and curls tossed around his shoulders. "Because I'll need some stress relief after trying to explain to you how to use a sword," he smiled before continuing "And he uses a different style which might be more suited to you, we'll just have to see."

Managing to hold back a comment, Duo contented himself with a quiet mutter about how he'd need stress relief after putting up with 'Fei for an exercise session, even as he privately enjoyed the slight teasing from his partner. It seemed the man had finally loosened up.

Finishing his drink and standing to tidy the remains onto his tray, he waited for Mac to do the same and they headed to the recycling units. "So, back to the grindstone?"

"Of course. Hopefully I can finish tracing at least one of the accounts today," the other agent replied with almost a sigh at the challenge ahead. "If I can trace it to Paris, and you can confirm there's possibilities located there then there's enough circumstantial evidence to get us transferred there temporarily where we'll be able to liaise with local authorities."

"That's cool, I've never been to Paris. Well, I have, but that was in 'Scythe and not exactly on a sight seeing mission, so, I don't think it counts..."

"It's a nice place, I've been there a few times."

And there the guy was surprising him. Again. What was it with the man and having travelled everywhere? "So... What's it like? I mean, I can tell you the OZ capabilities in the area, a rough layout of the place and the best tactics to use, but nothing that's of much use nowadays." Following Mac back to their office, he had to admit he was only half listening to the man's descriptions of the city as he watched the muscled body ahead of him.

"... Louvre was destroyed in 2484 following a minor war with England..." Yep, the accented voice was still gorgeous, even droning on about art and wines that hadn't existed for centuries. He growled to himself as they entered the office, feeling the tightening of his trousers. It wasn't as if he could go and relieve himself in the toilets - he was well aware that he wasn't exactly the quietest guy in the world when it came to dealing with that little problem. Dammit. Why did he have to go get a crush on his partner again?

"Thanks, Mac," he put in at the appropriate moment as they sat down, switching on respective monitors and settling into their already comfortable working silence.

It had taken the rest of the afternoon, but he thought he had managed to get the possible suspects down to five, all based in Paris or nearby. One was from the law enforcement system and a known gangster, but the other four varied from a shop assistant with little background, although the flight records didn't show up much for him, a banker who he would have dismissed immediately except for the link to a bank Mac was researching and an administrator for a retail company who had been in all the locations that they were looking at, and mature student who seemed to have slightly more money than he should have, who again, the flight records were vague on, All of whom had quirks in their backgrounds, deeply hidden, but suspicious, and all matching the CCTV scan results to some extent. He frowned for a moment, looking over the five records. Out of all of them, only four had clear photographs connected to the files, the student only having a very poor quality university photograph with long limp brown hair sweeping his shoulders and a pair of glasses that hid the man's eyes.

Mac had also had further success, the bank accounts unraveling under his skilled fingers and proving that the main accounts for the organisation were based in Paris, however he'd been unable to crack the pseudonyms of the owner of the accounts. Duo had also started to have a go at the names, trying to match them with his suspects, but to to no avail.

"I've updated Intel with our successes," his partner said as an email containing reservations and plane times for two days time pinged into his inbox. "Finance authorised the recon trip a few minutes ago and made the reservations, so don't blame me for the hotel choice."

Scanning over the email quickly, Duo pulled up the details on the assigned hotel, his training enabling him to quickly locate the hotel and orientate himself. "Hmm, Preventer don't do luxury, do they?" he muttered, the one bedroom room with adjoining bathroom still more than he'd ever had before the end of the war, except for the few trips to Q's mansion. "Room 410, which are you in?"

"I'm in a different hotel. Standard procedure - if you'd read your folder - to separate teams on recon missions to ensure security and safety for all involved."

"You sound like you've memorised the frigging manual, Mac," the pilot replied teasingly, "Which reminds me, are there any provisions in that manual for me to get a driving license without going through all the bloody tests and formalities?"

Duncan shook his head, "Not that I'm aware of. But I know Ice has a rather nice Ford Unique though, so he must have a license from somewhere." Before the Scot could continue, Duo had grabbed the phone, pushing in a few numbers before leaning back in his chair and throwing his feet on the desk as he waited for Heero to pick up.

He could almost feel the other man's enthusiasm, or lack thereof, down the phone as the Wing pilot answered up with his usual grunt, "Hey, Heero."

"Maxwell."

"Driving. Earth. License. How?"

"The Commander arranged for a military license based on my skills. If you ask her, she will arrange for a test for you. Is that all?"

"Yeah, been too..." He sighed as the phone went dead. No one could ever accuse Heero Yuy of being a master conversationalist. Sitting up for a moment, he keyed in Une's extension, holding up a hand at Duncan's questioning expression. "Hey Sittar, is Une available, it's Duo, er, Night?" He ran his free hand through his bangs as the secretary looked through the Commander's diary, politely explaining that she was caught up in meetings for the rest of the day. "Look, I just want to ask her 'bout military driving licenses, she hasn't got a moment?"

"Ah, yes, she mentioned that you'd probably be eligible for one of those." The secretary's voice became less flustered at the question, obviously happy to have a simple problem to solve. "I'll send the paperwork down in the internal mail and you can arrange a test with the garage, extension , um... 56231."

"Thanks. D'ya reckon they could do it this week?"

"I'm afraid I wouldn't know, you'll have to contact them directly. Is that all?" Even he could hear the hopeful sound in the woman's voice, although he wasn't sure whether it was due to being overworked or the fact she'd had enough of one Duo Maxwell for a while.

"Yeah, thanks again."

Before Mac could question him, he'd already dialed the test centre, and arranged a test for the afternoon of the next day. It appeared that while piloting a Gundam had no relevance to a modern car, the lorry experience, the driving the scrap machines around the yard and the odd abuse of a van were good enough to risk letting him loose on the roads. He thanked Howard silently for the basic training the man had given him in general machinery, although it wasn't hard to figure out that pressing pedal A meant the vehicle went faster, and pedal B stopped it, hell, it was child's play compared to 'Scythe's controls. OK, so he'd need to do a quick bit of research on laws and so on, but that would probably just be a bit of light bedtime reading..

"That's that organised," he said, finally meeting his partner's eyes with a grin, "Appears that I should be able to get a military license before we leave, assuming I don't screw up the test tomorrow."

Duncan shook his head in amusement, "Why am I not surprised? And if you can get the paperwork through in time, there's cars at the Paris base that you'll be able to borrow, insured by Preventer."

"I don't even wanna think 'bout how much insuring a Gundam pilot'll be," he feigned a shudder with a grin as he bent his head back to the computer for the last few hour or so of work.

The gym was busier that evening, both of them having made an effort to finish early to allow Wufei to join them, and Duo returned several admiring smiles from both men and women as he limbered up on the mats, noticing that Duncan garnered much the same appreciation.

Suddenly Mac bounced out of a stretch as Heero's partner appeared from the woman's changing room, still in her work clothes and made herself comfortable on one of the benches around the edge of the room, one slender leg neatly crossing over the other under a skirt that only just brushed her knees. "Give me a moment, Duo."

Huh. Now that was annoying. He watched as Duncan moved over to the blonde, kissing her on the lips as she ran her hands over his tanned arms. The female was obviously cooing over the Scot's muscles as she towelled some of the sweat off his face, pushing a few loose strands of hair off his face. He couldn't clearly see his partner's expression, but the body language said it all. Yep, Duncan was definitely interested in women. Damn, damn, damn. He concentrated on trying to read Dree's lips as he continued stretching, his movements sharper and more abrupt than they needed to be, and he forced himself to try to make the motions smooth before he pulled a muscle. Something about arranging a meal after Duncan got back from wherever he was going on his latest mission, and then maybe back to her place?

Fuck.

Or not as the case may be. He watched as Mac accepted the invitation, sealing it with a slightly steamier kiss, before pulling back and assisting the woman to her feet. With a touching of fingertips and a small wave, she sashayed back out of the gym as his partner headed back to the mats where he was trying not to curse. Now he just had to hope that the guy was bi.

When 'Fei turned up, Duo calmly asked if Duncan still had the daggers with him, and promptly let his frustration out on his fellow pilot, the Chinese man finding himself hard pressed to keep up with the flurry of blows that he rained down. Even Mac seemed surprised at the viciousness that he could unleash with the weapons when his violet eyes faded to shadows and he allowed the darkness within to slip out.

"Maxwell, that's enough." 'Fei's voice cracked through his irritation like a whip, the Shenlong pilot's sword striking him with full force behind it on the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. Before he could spring up, the other pilot was on him, locking his arm behind his back as he lent down and hissed in his ear. "Whatever has you so pissed off, it stops. Now."

The words trickled into his brain and he relaxed, forcing himself to push Shinigami away as 'Fei let him up and he rolled over. With a wince, he felt the bruises that the wooden sword had inflicted start to ache and looked up to see a thin trail of blood on his opponent's arm where one of the daggers had struck hard enough to draw blood. "Shit, 'Fei, I'm sorry," he started before the other man gave him a short formal bow and waved away his apologies.

"Whatever it was, you obviously needed the workout. Although next time, I'd appreciate it if you could at least try and pull your blows somewhat."

Grimacing as he stood, he gave his friend the expected bow back. He hadn't meant to unleash that much damage. Dammit, he knew better than to let himself go that far in a sparring match. For a moment he thanked whatever deity was listening that they'd not been fighting with live steel before turning to Mac to pass the daggers back, wiping the blood off the smooth wood on his trousers sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that Mac, you're not the only one who uses fighting for stress relief."

Before the question lurking in the brown eyes could be asked, the pilot stretched, suddenly feeling the rest of the eyes in the gym resting on him. Great, he'd even had an audience for that little temper tantrum. "I think I'm heading off for the day. We'll have to get that sword training in another day."

Duncan just nodded, watching him with a puzzled look, one hand touching his head as if in pain, as he trailed 'Fei back to the showers, letting the warm water sooth the aches that had started to complain across his body. Unbraiding his hair in the private stall he'd managed to nab, he allowed it to fall around him as a cloak, the chestnut strands reaching to his knees as the weight of the water pulled out the slight curl from keeping it braided. Silently he acknowledged the reason he'd lost control, the vision of Dree kissing his partner floating across his eyes, Duncan just as enthusiastically kissing back with her hand roaming over... Shit. He couldn't do this any more. But then, the Scot had never flirted back to even his most obvious hints, hadn't even commented on them. And now he knew why. The guy probably hadn't even noticed.

Feeling his hands curl into fists, he forced them to relax. While he wasn't Heero, the braided man was well aware he could still crack the tiles if he gave into the urge to punch them. When the hell had he fallen for the older man anyway? It wasn't as if tall, tanned and muscular was his usual type, he preferred blonds generally. With a sigh he reached for the soap dispenser and began to massage the stuff through his hair, the familiar motion relaxing him as he worked it into the strands. It wasn't as good as having a partner work on his mane - that generally threw him into ecstasy on the very rare occasions he felt comfortable to let someone else brush it, but it still felt nice with the water pouring around him.

Finally, his muscles relaxed and he tied his hair back into a rough plait before he left the stall to sort out at home, there was no way he'd have it loose in the changing room. Much to his relief, Mac hadn't left the gym yet, and 'Fei seemed to have already left as he towelled himself off and slipped his clothes on before heading out to call a cab and head home.