Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters – am just borrowing to torment for my amusement
Warnings: Swearing, yaoi, violence, general angst, possible OOCness (ages since I've written fanfiction so may be a little bit rusty)
Pairings: 1x2 , 3x4 a hint of one sided 5+2
A/N: This is a long chapter as I wanted to get some plot stuff out of the way before getting some Heero/ Duo action. Thanks for everybody who's reviewed, favorited and followed. A little warning for you folks – I'm going to try and get out a few more chapters but real life is going to get in the way soon – I marry my strong silent type in two weeks and then am Honeymooning so really don't think I'll be writing. I've got a natural break/half way point that I'll try to get posted before that.
Song for this chapter is This Could be Anywhere in the World by Alexisonfire
Chapter Seven
Ghosts from Broken Homes
It was bright and early when we set out to the hospital that Dallas and his crew used. I'd slept great but didn't say much to Heero. He'd provided energy bars for breakfast. Kind of figured. Apart from coffee, the kitchen was pretty spotless and seemed a storage space for weapons rather than somewhere that food was prepared. He'd always been one for energy bars and nutritionally balanced bland tasting food. I'd almost whined when we passed out of the back of Wired. It was an internet café and the food, while I bet was not great, would be superior to the tasteless bar I'd just eaten. I could smell bacon. Stupid Heero.
Dallas' crew used an old hospital located on the edge of the District. It had been built years ago and had been abandoned by the L2 government and left to fall into disrepair. It had been that way when I was a kid – just left, not even bothering to knock it down and build something else. That was L2 for you. It made me think of the L2 Project and all the things that Winner Corp were planning to build – maybe it would make the place better. Bulldoze the District and build affordable homes. Take down this crappy old hospital and build a decent one. All sounded good. All sounded too good. Damn sure that was why the people of L2 hated it. There had been promises before – promises about improving the weather cycles, promises about stopping the street crime and getting the street kids off the street. I'd heard them all before.
Solo used to laugh about things like that. "Promises, kiddo, promises always get broken. Remember that?"
I remembered shit like that he used to say – I was a kid and I idolised him – so sue me.
The approach to the hospital was through apartment block lined streets. It was probably generous to call them apartment blocks as they were a disaster zone – covered in graffiti, windows boarded up and roofs falling off. It was probably a nightmare when the L2 weather cycle got to rain – it was a rare occurrence on L2 but every now and then, it was thought that the colony needed rain so it would fall and it would suck. Though after my experience on Earth, I was kinda glad I'd lived on the streets in a colony rather than somewhere where it would rain all the time. Small mercies, I guess.
Heero was right to go out early. The streets were empty and we weren't as conspicuous as we would have been. Yeah, he looked like he could fit in and I hadn't put on either my jacket or hoodie so that my arm was showing but it would look a little odd. The day light made me feel exposed but my flick knife was in the pocket of my snug jeans and I'd managed to shove a small hand gun down the back of the waistband and covered it a little with my t shirt. I wanted people to know I was carrying. Heero hid his own weapon and was carrying a small backpack with photographic equipment and other surveillance shit.
He'd scoped the place out before and directed us to the side of the hospital building to an area which may have been intended to be a park at one point. Now it was overgrown and dead mostly. Obviously the colony hadn't had rain for a while. He'd found a vantage point and dropped his pack, leaning down and grabbing binoculars and offering a pair to me.
"Always prepared, huh? You're like a boy scout."
He grunted, not in the mood for my jokes. Touchy. I looked through and could see the parking lot was full of burned out cars and junk. I also could see the gang had a group of look outs. They didn't look like they were guarding very effectively – they were grouped together, chatting. I looked up to the room of the building to see a sniper located who seemed to be bored. He had the weapon but was just kinda holding it without any intentions.
"Don't seem very organised."
"The day crew seems less capable."
"Night crew must be tougher, I guess, more action."
He nodded. I looked more closely at the group situated between the burnt out cars. There were three of them – and as I looked I could tell there was one girl alongside the two guys. She was wearing baggy clothes but it was a girl.
"You notice the girl? Thought you said it was all guys."
"I've never seen a girl before."
"Look at the guards – two dudes, one chick. Pretty obvious."
He looked again closely as I kicked a bit of the plants around my ankles. Girls were important in gangs – they usually had the toughest time so it was only the toughest chicks that made it through. The girl would be a badass.
"I don't see the significance."
"You've never worked in a gang, 'Ro, girls in gangs have to be tough otherwise they become just objects to be used and traded. If they've got a chick with a gun she's probably important. I'd guess she's Dallas' second in command."
He lowered his binoculars and looked at me critically. "You have no way of knowing that."
I shrugged my shoulders. "It's only a hunch. I've been living in gangs for half my life, you get to know the hierarchies. It ain't like the war. Totally different set of rules."
I wanted to make a comment about that was the reason I was here – that I was called in as Heero didn't have the adequate knowledge but I bit my tongue. I kinda liked being superior in something and decided I wasn't going to be an ass about it. It wouldn't help.
We left the hospital and headed back to Wired where Heero used one of the computers while I ordered some food that actually, you know, resembled food. The guy who ran Wired was an old dude who wore an eye patch and called himself the Captain which amused me, as I sat and chatted to him. He knew I'd come in with Heero so seemed suspicious of the situation between us. I decided to make it less suspicious.
"We're, like, together."
It sounded a dumb way of saying it. I said together with a lot of emphasis. The Captain nodded and looked over to Heero sat on one the machines, intently typing. I had no fucking idea what he was doing. He was just meant to be contacting the gun runners, not typing a motherfucking essay. I sipped the soda. Heero looked over as though he knew he was being talked about then looked back to the machine. I shrugged. I really didn't know what he wanted from me. I really didn't know what I wanted for him. Fuck it, this was complicated.
"Good luck to ya," the Captain said, not phased by the information, which I decided was good.
Maybe I could get the Captain to spread the rumours about us, made our cover more relatable. I could be an old flame busting into town looking for work. Probably should have shared this info with Heero first. Damn, wasn't used to working with someone.
I finished the soda and walked over to Heero and decided to make a lil show, I draped myself a little over his shoulder, my hair falling into his lap and my chin touching his shoulder. Credit to him, he didn't elbow me or try to knock my lights out, but he did visibly stiffen at the contact of my skin on his. We'd avoided touching so far. Plus, this was something I'd done before, if my constant patter of talking bullshit didn't get a rise outta him then sure as hell, skin to skin contact did. He'd fuck me just to stop me annoying him. And that, ladies and gentleman, is how I know it's not love. And it never was.
"What the-"
He hissed at me. Goddamn hissed. He was pretty pissed, that I could tell.
"Go with it," I whispered back, my mouth a little too close to his ear. "It works for the cover."
I could tell he was glaring though I couldn't see his eyes. I looked at the screen in front of him and realised he was writing encryption for a secure message, then I looked back to see if anyone was watching us. The Captain had disappeared to the kitchen area and the only other patron was a gross looking fat guy who was really sweaty. I really hoped he wasn't looking at porn but suspected he was – there you go, another classy moment on L2.
I flopped down at the seat next to him and leaned back, putting my arms behind my head, watching him closely. He ignored me but I had a feeling I'd got to him. Heh, score one for Maxwell! But damn, what the fuck was I doing? I shouldn't be messing, shouldn't be playing to see if he wanted to jump my bones still as after all, hadn't I said I hated him? Hadn't I pushed him away? Wasn't I the asshole in this situation?
Everyone else had sided with Heero after all – even Quatre who was supposed to my best friend. I was expected to be the better one in this situation. That was the thing. Everyone thought I was the less messed up one out of us so I was the one that should have been there for him. What they never figured out was that I just hid it better.
He finished typing and logged off the machine, grabbed his rucksack and didn't look at me.
"I need to collect something from upstairs."
"Roger that," I said sarcastically.
I waved at the Captain as we left which earned me a scowl from Heero. There was no harm in being friendly, you know, is what I wanted to say. But I decided it was better not to say anything.
We went back to the apartment and I leaned against the door watching him ditch the surveillance equipment in the kitchen cupboards before stalking around the room to the dirty awfully patterned rug that sat over the wooden floorboards. He folded the rug over and dug out a pocket knife I never knew he carried around before jimmying open a coupla of the boards to where he kept the real stash. Cash. Lot's of it.
"Wow," I said. "What ya do – rob a bank?"
He grunted ignoring me and started getting out bundles and putting some into front pouch of the backpack. I assumed he didn't want help so I watched.
"Is it Preventers money?"
"Yes. Money speaks apparently in your line of work."
"You mean money talks. And you know it's not literal. It's just a phrase."
I really think he wasn't appreciating my sarcasm as I got a stone cold glare. Look who got out of the wrong side of bed this morning.
"The leader of the gun runners is called Antoine. We'll have to pay him to broker a meeting."
"How much?"
Heero didn't answer me as he lifted something from the floor boards I'd not seen for a while – a greyish coloured block that I knew was explosives and put it in the bag. C4 was the most stable of explosives – you could pretty much shoot it without it going off. It was all about the mechanism that was attached to it, the charges and what not that made it active and so he could carry it in the backpack without worrying about being blown to kingdom come. It looked like Play Doh. But still, authorities knew what it was, you couldn't just go through security with it in a spaceport. It was a small amount but it could create a nice crater. I wondered how he had it.
"How the fuck do you have that?"
"I didn't travel commercial."
I smirked at the attempt at being vaguely funny. If Heero had a sense of humour, which I occasionally think he did, it was dark and very, very dry.
"I thought we might need proof that I can get explosives."
"Yeah and that would be proof."
He replaced the floorboard, leaving some cash in the hole and pulled the rug back over. I decided to grab my black hoodie and rolled up the sleeves a little – it wasn't particularly cold but L2's weather system was a temperamental son of a bitch and I wasn't quite sure which season or weather cycle we were meant to be in the middle of. I hadn't thought of checking it out – I suppose it never really mattered as much on the colonies, it wasn't like the undercover in motherfucking Russia that I'd spent two months freezing my balls off. That had been so much fun.
"The gun runners operate from a club," Heero said, putting the backpack over his shoulders which I thought looked kinda cute. It made him look like he was going to school – not that it actually contained C4 and obscene amounts of money.
"Awesome."
We didn't say anything else to each other as we left Wired and walked to said club. I think it unsettled Heero. The kid I'd used to be would just fill silence as I fucking hated silence. Silence makes you think about things. Now… I didn't mind it as much. I'd been alone and isolated for so long that I didn't talk a mile a minute anymore. I'm not saying I'm Trowa or anything but I don't feel the need to fill silence and I didn't feel the need to do it now. So it was him that broke it.
"Duo."
"Hmm?"
"Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"Act like we're…"
"Together?"
He nodded.
"Because if I'm staying with you it makes it look more, like normal, if I'm some kinda ex rather than me just arriving in town and moving in with ya."
This confused him. Maybe it was confusing me. I think my argument was shaky at best for this pretence and I was now wondering why I'd done it. Despite him looking normal I didn't think he was deprogrammed fully from whatever his Perfect Solider training had done. And this seemed like a sneaky tactic at best from me – yeah, I wanted to touch him, there was a part of me that just wanted to suggest fucking and see what happens. But I couldn't do that to him. Hell, I couldn't do that to me. If it had been just fuck buddies as I always wanted it to be then I would have done that, wouldn't I? Last night, I'd have just stripped in front of him, I would've been my slutty best and seen if he was interested. And it wouldn't have mattered in the morning. But it did matter – it mattered that we hadn't. My brain was hurting and it was nothing to do with a stupid L2 gang and the threat to Q's life. And that's what I was here for, not for me and Heero to work out what the hell we had, I tried to think about my job. The mission. Push it down and think about other shit.
"'Ro, I'm not used to working with anyone… I shoulda asked you if you wanted to go with it."
He seemed to be thinking, I scanned his face as we walked. It was like he was processing the information, weighing up the scales, seeing the positive and the negatives. It was times like this that I thought he wasn't human. Everything was think about it – calculate, work it, it was like he had computer under that thick skull.
"It's fine," he said finally.
"Cool."
We arrived to the club in question and I couldn't help smirking. It was called Black Velvet, the neon sign in darkness at this time of day but it was clear what kind of place it was. Strip joint. This was probably going to be catalogued in the most surreal moments in my life – put it with having Wufei holding my hair while I threw up and seeing Heero throw himself outta a hospital window and not pulling the chord on his parachute.
I was still smiling, maybe a little psychotically as I motioned towards him. "You go first."
He did – I think the whole weirdness of the situation didn't really register with him as I followed to the darkly lit club. It was large with a stage where a couple of girls were grinding on the poles. I glanced over to them to see them doing their best to get some cash off the small crowd. I wasn't gonna judge the girls – there were far worse things to do than become a stripper but it all felt a little weird to me. They were baring everything for like five guys. And we'd up the male quota by two and neither of us were interested – or at least, I knew I wasn't. I'd never figured if 'Ro was gay or bi or just some kind of alien sexuality. I noticed him glance in the direction of the stage but he didn't seem to have any response at all.
We walked over to the bar with a girl wearing more than the girls on stage but only by a small amount. She wore tiny denim hot pants and her black t shirt was slashed and cropped, the words Black Velvet across her chest, I mean I looked. Just because I am gay doesn't mean I don't notice chicks.
"What can I get ya?" she asked, all false cheerfulness, boobs out and big smile.
"Nothing darlin', we're here to see Antoine," I answered as Heero looked round once again. I knew what he was doing – old habits die hard you know, figure out the potential dangers and shit.
Her mouth narrowed into an "ohh" and she looked at us very shrewdly. "He's in the private room – follow me."
We followed her, walking closely past the stage, I didn't look up at the girls instead I looked at the clients. I was kinda curious what sort of man sits in a strip club at 3.30pm and I saw a cop uniform and a coupla suits along with a tatted up young guy. Most of the guys were old, mid-forties was my best guess.
Our friendly bar tender opened a door at the back of the room and then reached out to touch Heero. I watched her do it expecting him to react, I expected those lightning fast reflexes to have her hand behind her back and her in masses of pain. He didn't. I saw damn near a look of fear in his blue eyes, I'm pretty sure he still didn't know how to deal with chicks, that had always been the problem with Relena. He didn't know how to talk to girls.
"I can get you some private time with the girls," she said, a seriously predatory look in her eyes. "And me."
Her eyes were all over Heero. I really didn't blame her – I would say my looks were quirky whereas he was as conventionally attractive as you get. Tall, dark and handsome. He was a stereotypical good looking leading man if we were in the movies. I'd be the side kick. It didn't bother me that her attention was all over him but it did bother him.
I laughed darkly. "Sweetie, you are so wasting your time. He'd prefer a lap dance from me than you or any of the girls."
Her hand left his arm as quickly as if she'd been burnt. Heero looked over to me in a way that suggested he was thankful for my intervention. I grinned back at him as she looked between us.
"You make a hot couple," she said
"Thanks," I responded as she walked away, her eyes still on both of us as she did. I shrugged and gestured towards him and we walked through the door. I really couldn't work out if now she was imaging us together but whatever.
We were in a really dark back room that had no window. It was lit moodily which to me meant it was difficult to see properly. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to see the large desk, the pool table, and the walls covered in pictures of various girls in different stages of undress. Some of the pictures were pretty coy, you know, chicks in dresses doing that look over their shoulder with their finger in their mouth but there were some that were just showing everything. I looked over to Heero for a second but he'd already been here. He'd probably done the same thing as I did the first time – looked to see the surroundings and how to get out. The way out was from the way we'd come but there was another door opposite us which I assumed led to another room before the exit into the alley.
There were two guys in the room. One was a heavy and he was stood next to the large desk. He was big, taller than Heero and was very broad, his arms were huge and tattooed, his head was shaved close and he had his arms folded across his chest in a way that was quite intimidating. I could see across his hands the letters HATE LIFE across them. Which seemed charming. He looked fun. I could see why Antoine hired the goon – he was good as an ornament never mind what his fighting skills were like. I think we could take him but you know, it would be difficult. But it always important to remember that not everything is about brute strength.
The other was Antoine. He was sat at the desk lazily, his feet up on the desk, so that his steel toed boots were visible. He eyed his goon and Heero offered his backpack and gun in response and then put his hands up so that the heavy could pat him down. It seemed weird to me to see Heero just submit to the treatment – the Heero I knew sure as hell wouldn't but shit was different now, I suppose. The gun and the backpack Heero carried were put on the pool table which was really not the most secure. We could easily get back our shit. It amazed me how cocky some criminals are. The heavy glanced over to me then towards his boss.
"Who's the pretty boy, Blaise?"
"Domino," he replied for me.
I grinned a real Cheshire cat smile. "Call me Dom."
"Gus, pat him down."
Gus did that with a little too much enthusiasm. I was really beginning to hate the fact that all heavies, cops and authority figures liked to pat me down with a little more force than was necessary. I was looking forward to being a nobody again – I really was sick of being felt up.
He removed my gun from my waistband and then found the flick knife in my pocket, he smirked as he brought it out and flicked it out in front of my face. He was intimidating, I wasn't going to deny it – he looked like he could snap me in half.
"Sit, gentleman," Antoine offered.
There were two fold out chairs at the other side of the desk to Antoine and we took them, I looked over to Gus who was now was flicking my knife in and out like I did. Hell, it was annoying when someone else did it. I was really annoying when I wanted to be.
"What ya got for me Blaise? Sure as hell better not be the pretty boy… though I'm sure I've got customers that would be interested in him. Might spice up the club a lil."
I wanted to fly at the guy but I felt a hand on my thigh which I glanced down at it really fucking puzzled. Blame the sudden anger as it took two seconds for my brain to process the image. Heero was touching my thigh, his fingers squeezing a second before moving – a quick signal to suggest he knew what I was thinking. He knew my temper was my main problem. Hell, I bet 'Fei had warned him how I can go off still. And I don't know… stuff that upset me tended to be pervy sexual stuff. I suppose I'd been a walking target for it all my life with the long hair and all, but I couldn't help seeing red. I took a breath and plastered a smile on my face as fake as they come.
Heero answered for me. "Dom is an explosives expert."
Antoine's eyes ranged over me again, taking in the tattoo on my arm, and staring very intently at my face and then his eyes glanced to my braid. I looked back defiantly. I took in everything about him. I was used to guys like him – I'd worked with so many of them over the years. People always underestimated me on my appearance as well. You had to prove you wouldn't back down. And I wasn't gonna. He moved his feet from the desk and then sat forward, leaning across the desk and staring into my eyes.
"Where ya from? Blaise never mentioned you before."
"I just got back. I was born here."
"I don't know ya."
"Ya know everyone from L2 ever?"
"No, but I know every criminal and low life."
I shrugged. "Just got back, been working elsewhere."
"Why come back? Most people don't."
I looked over to Heero who seemed to be uncomfortable. "Him."
"Him? You two…ahh." He made a crude gesture with his hand near his mouth, his tongue in his cheek. I rolled my eyes in response. "Wondered why Blaise hadn't took up Niko's offers."
"Yeah, told her he'd prefer a lap dance off me."
He laughed. "You got balls, Dom. She's an alley cat. Not used to not getting what she wants."
The room seemed ever so slightly less tense. I could hear Gus still flicking the knife in an annoying rhythm. Antoine looked over.
"Fuck it, Gus, stop it, man. Get our guests some drinks. What's your poison, Dom?"
"Bourbon on the rocks."
"Good choice… I think I prefer your honey more than you Blaise. He seems more fun."
Heero grunted at that which I smirked at – yeah, like I thought, he wasn't as convincing as a low life criminal as me. He didn't have the charm.
Gus left, his hulking body seeming to take ages to leave the room. I looked back to Antoine, he gave me a grin that showed two capped gold teeth. He did well it seemed. Guns and strippers. Living the fucking dream.
"Gus is great muscle but dumb." He looked over to Heero. "What ya got for me apart from your boy toy?"
"I can get C4 for Dallas – there's a sample in my bag."
Antoine raised his eyebrows. "You can get C4? Damn, Blaise, I don't know how you do some of this shit."
"He's one of a kind," I said, my eyes locking with his in the darkness. I gave Heero a lopsided grin and got a glare in response. He really didn't know how to play the "we're a couple card". Suppose he hadn't done that when we were fucking each other. Now that there was no physical contact, all we had was the mission.
"How much can you get?"
"How much do you need?"
"Well, that all depends. You'll have to talk to Dallas."
"Go ahead, buddy, get us a meeting with Dallas," I said.
"This one always impatient, Blaise?" Antoine asked giving me a weird smirk.
"Yes, always."
The tone in his voice was oddly sensual. I raised my left eyebrow at him unsure of what the comment meant. He wasn't a great actor, that much was clear, he just fit in with angry young ex-soldier being that, you know, that was him all over. Was he remembering shit between us? Me, impatient? Yeah, maybe, but he was sure as hell as bad as I had been. I tried to forget an image that had popped into my head, the dorm at that stupid little school where Relena found him again, us back in a dorm room, his I think, and him moving the chair to stop the door from being opened from the outside and then us both being undressed in like ten seconds flat. Horny, young, impatient? Yeah, to all three.
Gus came back in the room with a bottle and three glasses with ice on a tray. I'm surprised he hadn't dropped it. He didn't have an ounce of elegance or grace about him. He was just built. Least it stopped my train of thought. Antoine poured three glasses, offering Heero one which he accepted – I knew Heero wasn't a big fan of alcohol being that it impaired his otherwise perfect senses but it was just something normal people did – something he always seemed to struggle with. I took a sip and it seemed to burn. It was not good stuff but I didn't show it – Antoine drank his in one gulp. Heero looked at it suspiciously and I glared in response at him. I would have said just drink the fucking thing but it wasn't really the time to do that.
He took a sip and managed not to look like he hated it. I decided to down the rest of mine and slam it down as Antoine got up and wandered over to where Gus had discarded our weapons on the pool table. The backpack with the C4 was there and he opened it getting out the explosives which looked pretty harmless in their current state.
"Nice, Blaise, but really you know Dallas wants a lot more."
"I can get more."
"You said… but let's say I don't want to set up some meet and greet with Dallas and get my head blown off when you don't deliver the goods. He's got a motherfucking temper."
"We'll get the goods, let us worry about Dallas and his motherfucking temper," I said.
I was getting a little impatient with Antoine and had a feeling Heero was too. He was on some kinda power trip wanting to feel like he ran the L2 criminal scene. Sure, he had the strip joint and the guns but he wasn't running the show. I wondered if there were any issues with Dallas and Antoine. It seemed if Dallas was the king of current L2 badasses then someone like Antoine may have a problem with it. It was an angle. I logged the information for later.
Antoine sat back down and looked over at us, his eyes glanced at Heero first then back to me.
"I'll get you the meeting… for a price."
"How much?"
"Twenty thou'."
It seemed Antoine just went for a ballpark figure – a large ballpark figure. I wasn't sure how much Preventer cash Heero had but was pretty damn sure it was not that much.
"We have eight," he said bluntly, glaring at Antoine.
Antoine had balls. He had the full Yuy Death Glare on him and he didn't flinch. Suppose to him, he was just Blaise some Japanese kid who made his money smuggling and messing with computers. It wasn't Gundam pilot 01 who could snap someone neck in two without a thought. He'd never seen the Heero I'd seen.
"Then taking into account our previous dealings, Blaise, I'll get one of you in."
"One of us?" I asked.
"It's more than half the price… one of you meets Dallas."
"No deal," Heero said, his arms folded across his chest, stubbornness personified.
"Then no meeting with Dallas."
"I'll go," I said. "We'll pay you the eight and I'll meet him… I got the expertise anyway."
I fully realised that I had just sidestepped Heero whose glare was now fully trained on me – I was beginning to get used to it again. That look of pure unadulterated pissedness. I seemed to be being directed at yours truly like some kinda weapon. He was a coiled spring of anger, I'm sure if we'd been in private my back would be against the wall and his hands would be around my throat. And it sure as hell wouldn't be sexual. It would just be an extreme bout of Yuy anger. And I'd probably deserve it. I gave him back a glare of my own and curled my lips in an expression that was smug and nasty before turning back to Antoine.
"Deal, Dom – eight thou and you meet Dallas. I'm sure the arrangement with Dallas will earn you a hell of a lot more than eight thou. This is my finder's fee."
"Finder's fee – it's a fucking rip off!"
"You want to meet Dallas? 'Cause I'm starting to think you boys ain't serious."
It was then I noticed Gus was no longer playing with my flick knife, instead he was cracking his knuckles and looking ready to beat the shit out of us. I also noticed that Antoine had reached into the draw of his desk, carefully bringing out a very large and fancy looking piece. This was going south.
"Deal," I said. "Money's in the front pouch of the bag."
Antoine opened the front pouch seeing the money carefully separated into thousands by elastic bands. I wondered if Heero had done that or it just came that way when Wufei handed it over. I then thought that it was a fucking random thing to be thinking.
I rose to my feet and Heero followed my lead. Gangs and criminals were not his speciality but my guess his survival instinct was kicking in and he knew we needed to get out before things went bad. Antoine got all the money out of the bag, smiled so that I could see those gold teeth again and then offered his hand to Heero. They shook but I could see the tension in Heero's body. He wanted to beat the shit out of the guy – this sort of work wasn't for him.
"Nice doing business with ya."
He offered his hand to me and I took it but the bastard pulled me forward a little so that he could make me aware of how strong he was or something.
"Don't fuck with Dallas," he said.
"I have no intention of doing that…seriously."
His hand was crushing my fingers and then he looked away, letting me go. I wanted to stretch out my fingers as his grip had been pretty hard but decided it showed weakness that I really didn't want to show.
"I'll be in touch in the usual way, Blaise." He looked over to Gus. "Give 'em back their shit."
Gus handed our guns back and Antonie offered Heero his backpack minus the money. Gus paused with my flick knife. I was face to face with the prick and it seemed like he intended to keep it. I don't know why, being that it was just a flick knife but I wanted it back. After all, Heero had got it for me. I was close to kneeing that guy in balls and then Antoine spoke.
"The knife."
I was handed it back with a little bit of attitude. The one thing you really don't do to Duo Maxwell is show attitude. Cause I've got attitude in spades. I decided to flick it out in his face. Not sensible as if Heero didn't push me out of the door back into the club, I might've ended up without a head.
His hand was on my arm, virtually dragging me away and I was a little powerless to do anything else than follow him. Niko looked over from the bar. Suppose it could be a lovers tiff. We exited the club to see that the night cycle was starting and the District was coming alive.
Then he exploded. I was expecting it. We managed to get out of the club and to the alley to the left of it that was located between the club and a greasy burger place before he slammed me against the wall. He didn't say anything at first but his fingers were holding me up by my t shirt, my toes were on the ground but he was pretty much holding me upright. Ah, those shows of genetically modified Yuy strength were one thing I really didn't miss.
"That wasn't the plan."
"Yeah but it fucking worked."
He growled, a sound low in his throat that was very… animalistic. Our bodies were the closest they'd been in years, our faces only inches apart, it took every last bit of resistance I had not to lean in and kiss him. He looked conflicted, those deep blue eye boring a hole in my head. Instead of doing anything, he let go and stepped back, breathing heavily. I straightened my clothing that had been rumpled by his display of anger.
"You can't go alone."
"I'll go alone and it'll be fine. Seriously, I'm pretty awesome at my job."
He wasn't looking at me and I couldn't make up my mind what the problem was. Was it that we were meant to be working together? Or was it that I was going into the firing line without back up? Was that weird protective streak coming out again? Fuck knows.
I looked over to see that our little altercation had caused some interest in the street – a couple of girls, heavily made up had seen us. He noticed that we'd caused a little scene.
"Let's get out of here."
"Totally agree with you."