Hello! Another chapter for you all, Happy Valentine's day I am showing you my love by posting. Woot. Also because I got 4 reviews on the last two chapters which means 1 more then the last time. Double woot!

I am pimping my story Years of the Past here as well. It's a one-shot and a song-fic (Inspired by a song I guess) which I have never done before and I have only gotten 1 feed back thing that told me it was really really sad. Which I guess is what I was going for... This is probably not making you want to read it. But I would like to know how I did if possible, so I can be like Oh I should write more like that! Or GOD NO KILL IT WITH FIRE AND NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Anyways... yeah... ON with the FIC!

Ch33

The weeks after that breakfast morning there was a sort of routine set. They would end up going for walks in the wilderness surrounding the house. Duo still had no concept of where they were exactly, but he was fine with it. When they returned, lunch would happen and afterward Wufei would go out in front of the house and move through a fascinating series of martial arts forms that Duo had yet to be able to identify, but he remembered them from the war when they were housed together. It always seemed to leave him in a trance like state of relaxation after watching Wufei move so fluidly. He didn't feel like learning. There was no point. He knew that it taken Wufei years to master and they each had their own fighting styles. He would not want the new influence to destroy his own style. Any sort of hesitation in a fight could mean that he would end up with more than a few teeth missing. More like the possibility of having a new hole somewhere on his person and that was not a thought that was very enticing.

Afterward he and Wufei would either chat or read or do their own thing. Duo had started to carve random sculptures in wood that he found in on the ground during their morning hikes. Or he would go walk and set his feet in the stream. Dinner and random conversation would follow. From there they would sleep, he still stayed out on the couch, but occasionally either because what they talked about that day brought his nightmares screaming to the forefront of his thoughts, or because Wufei seemed to know that he needed the company - he would come and camp out on the sofa with Duo like the first night. They had gotten so used to it that Wufei even let his feet touch Duo's at night some time and not wake up. Duo had tested it. He hadn't stirred.

It was a strange and unique experience to be given after all this time Being alone with Wufei. He used to be so high strung and standoffish that it was not often Duo would find himself in a position to watch the other teen move or have him cook and actually share casual conversations with him. Most seemed to be filling him in on what was happening with the Preventers or how he had been feeling terribly put out, but Duo never had the fear that Wufei was simply having him here to gather intelligence to be utilized against them. This had been the closest Duo had come to a vacation since… well… never. Duo had never had a vacation, but this was the most relaxed he had felt in his life. And he didn't even know where he was in the world; it was just him and Wufei at this little house in the middle of nowhere presumably outside of New Tokyo somewhere. He had not bothered to turn on any sort of electronics except when he used Wufei's laptop to email Heero that they were fine and relearning each other's patterns again. He was supposed to check in weekly under orders of Une, but he had only checked in twice in the last three and a half weeks.

The idea that he had to report this to Une was starting to chafe a little at the thought actually. Wufei had some good points about how the government and organizations like the Preventers had caused most of his problems. And in turn Duo had begun to except and see his logic as true. The knock on effect that everything had in their lives. Every one of the pilots was drowning instead of living peacefully in what they had fought for. It wasn't fair to any of them in the least. The only one who seemed okay after all of this was Wufei. Sure he was unbalanced at times, but they all were and had a uniquely sick sense of humor that each accepted. Still though, Wufei had to go through hell before he could even get to the cool headed calm place he seemed to find himself in.

It looked like the pilots were wrong to think that the best place for them after the war had ended would have been with the Preventers. It appeared that it was the worst place for them. Supposedly it would benefit the world, but they had given up so much. Why would they have to keep fighting now? When was it there turn to relax and enjoy their own lives for what they were supposed to be? Free to do as they wanted?

Duo stopped thinking so hard about the consequences of being a war hero and a pilot when he heard the soft padding across the grass of Wufei approaching. He was sitting with his feet in the creek and Wufei was just getting done with his exercises. "You look as if you have a lot on your mind, Duo."

"Not much" he returned. "Just feel more like me then I have in quite a while." Duo shrugged at Wufei's calm words and had a small grin on his lips. "Just feeling a little rebellious I suppose."

"Ah." Wufei returned. "Yes I believe I have memory of a prankster that never knew when to quit. Is he making a comeback soon? Should I be checking my shampoo bottle for green tint?"

Duo looked over at Wufei and snorted, "I didn't think you remembered me doing that to Quatre!" He laughed. "I didn't even think that you were there during that time in the safe house…"

"I wasn't." Wufei confirmed. "Quatre made a request that I stop by and scare the living bejessus out of you if I remember and I thought my com screen was off because his hair was tinted so green." He snorted and looked up at the canopy of the trees, "I believe I was fiddling with the screen for a week, before he confirmed that it had been one of your more illustrious pranks."

Duo grinned wider. "He was mad." He stated. And silence fell between them. Wufei took the time to roll up his sweat pants and stick his feet in the cool water next to Duo.

"We'll be going to work soon." Wufei stated. An opening into a longer more involved conversation that had to take place.

Duo frowned and the small smile disappeared. "You think that we are ready?"

"Yes I do."

Do was quiet and decided that Wufei would be the one to talk first since he was the one that was so eager to start this mission. It was a silly sentiment he knew, but it bothered him that he would be taken away from this place when he just now began to feel like he was relaxing enough and becoming himself once again. Wufei seemed to sense that.

"Duo, you know this to be one of my safe houses. Now that you have seen it I can't keep it as one. How about it be a place for us to come together if we are both lost in the future. You can always come on your own as well and stay as long as you want." Wufei supplied. At once Duo was both hurt and understood the proposition. They were comfortable around each other, but that did not mean that Wufei trusted him enough to keep this as a safe house over all. It was a stupid assumption that he would. But he was thrilled that Wufei would suggest that he could come by at any time and only they would know about it. Duo nodded and his frown lessened somewhat.

"I don't know how you do it Wufei." Duo said. "How can you so calmly tell everything that I am thinking? It's unnerving. I can't come close to reading you."

"Eventually you will." He said. "When you gain your own peace you will understand where I am coming from at all times. There will be no living with you at that point that is for sure." He joked. They were quiet for a bit longer when Wufei cut in, "Now back to the task at hand. We need to begin to prepare for the actuality of working with in these groups as I have previously established relations with. The only way I can think to have you come on is as a comrade that feels betrayed as I did and wants to flip. That means that you are going to reveal some very sensitive data, Duo. Data and expertise that they can utilize. My first thought is that you supply them with some information that would allow you to seem as if you really do want to help and then perhaps to send you to do mechanics work."

"You have a group of mechanics?" Duo said a little surprised by the notion. "You guys are gun runners. Why would you need a mechanic?"

"We need a mechanic first for our vehicles and equipment, which I know that you have expertise as well as contact in the sweepers to get you parts. It is also for the rebuilding of mobile suits." Wufei stated and looked over at Duo to see how he would react.

React he did. "You want me to help the gun runners rebuild suits?! That's insane Wufei. We don't actually want them running around with working artillery do we?"

Wufei sighed. "No we don't but the dealers get a better price when we deliver goods that already work. You can work in computer errors if you want to delay each ones movement. Or install tracking devices on a couple so we can begin to send tips to the Preventers on where they are going and who they are being shipped out to, but Duo, if we don't tread carefully you and I will both end up dead. I already told you I take care of myself."

It was a threat and Duo knew it to be, but he couldn't help that fact that it stung. Knowing that he had to was not making it any easier to come to terms with. How could Wufei even consider such a thing after all they had done together? Wufei's hand landed on his shoulder. "I understand that this might be difficult for you considering the way the last undercover operation mission went for you Duo, but I need you to understand the consequences of not performing like I need you to perform. The position I am giving you is one that will keep you from having to kill people and will allow you to easily feed information I may not have to the Preventers in ways that will not get us caught. This sd all very important. You understand that right?" Wufei asked.

Duo could understand. He knew the need of all of this. "Yes, Wufei. I will only listen to you. There will be no orders from Une penetrating my brain I promise. Hell, it won't even be that hard to pretend to hate the Preventers now. Not after everything they have put all of us though. All of my friends." Wfuei did not comment on the use of the word friend. He never did. Duo could not tell if he was disappointed by that fact or accepting of it. Wufei had always been a little apart from friendly tidings, even though he knew he had felt that kinship at one point in the past, he was just never one act or expose emotions on it. It was who Wufei was.

"There is one other thing," Wufei stated quietly. "You are going to have to come in as my companion."

Duo looked up violet eyes flashing wide, "What?!" He spluttered, "What do you mean your companion?!"

"Exactly how it sounds unfortunately." Wufei said back not looking at Duo. He was looking at his toes through the water's glistening surface. "Marcus respects the power people hold over others. We've come to that understanding over an individual that works for him whose name is Trent. This boy Trent will literally do anything to please Marcus. It is his simpering way." Duo heard the slight bitterness in the tone of Wufei's steely voice and couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Wufei was upset over the outcome of a lackey of Trent. It almost felt… like dejection. "He will not trust you so soon after you tried to spy on his operation for the Preventers unless you are under a similar type of control. Especially someone of your skill set." All he knows is that I have been on a bitter revenge streak against Donovan, which is why he never did business with him in the first place. He did not want to be dragged into the fray." Wufei stopped talking. His vision was far off, thinking of something that was nowhere near them now.

"Trent was your cell mate." Duo stated. It wasn't a question. But it was at the same time. Wufei would know that.

"Yes."

"What happened?" Duo asked hesitantly He knew he was prying, but after these last weeks perhaps it was now time for Wufei to do more of the talking then Duo about this past year.

Wufei sighed and ran his hand over his hair, catching strays that had fallen out during his workout and tucking them safely behind an ear. "Nothing I wish to discuss right now." He said. He seemed to be closing himself off again. Duo knew he needed to stop prying when Wufei was getting like this. He would get agitated if he kept pushing and refuse to talk with Duo for the rest of the day. He wouldn't cook dinner either so Duo would be left to fend for himself. He knew that. It had happened early in the first week here. "I'm sure you will find out anyways if we end up doing this mission together anyways like planned." He conceded. "So will you do it? I know that it is a lot to ask, but this is the only way I see this as being feasible. Otherwise the first sign of trouble he will tell me to kill you." And I won't hesitate was left off at the end, but Duo knew it was there. A threat that was waiting unspoken.

"I will be you concubine, Wufei. Do you require nightly massages?" Duo batted his eyelashes at the teen next to him.

Wufei snorted and shoved Duo sideways. "You are insufferable." He returned and got up from the creek bed to head towards the house. He would shower now and either read or begin to think about what they would eat for dinner.

Duo sighed and splashed his toes in the water. It would be fine. He would miss this creek bed and the sounds of the wilds out here, but at least he was feeling more like himself then he had in a long time. It was beginning to feel normal between him and Wufei again, like old times. He shook his head defeated. If only it felt like this between all of the pilots. Like it used to be.

It was sad that in a time of supposed peace, he was wishing for the times of war.

TBC

Things are about to get interesting... Hope you enjoyed... Reviews feed my plot bunnies and my plot bunnies feed the story and the stry hopefully makes you happy or entertained or gives you something to make fun of, which hopefully gets me more reviews! It's a circle! Invest in the circle. Be the circle. Enjoy the circle.

Sorry. I've had a lot of brownies this morning.

Breakfast of freaking champions

-Silverserpent