Bishi Pile Challenge:

Major challenge response: Respect, Organisation, Respect

Minor challenge response: Crisis, Anger, Argue, Faith

Word count: 2,558

Series: Friends 2: Friends and Enemies

Author: Karina

Pairings: Zechs + Duo, Trowa x Quatre

Ratings: M 15+ [In Australia] Rated in the event of bad language and violence.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters.

Warnings: No apology given for Aussie spelling, but fair warning given.

Many thanks to Katie for betaing this chapter and a special thanks to ShenLong Deb for a quick check over additional changes. Love you ladies.

Character Challenge: Duo, Quatre and Zechs

Chapter 8

No doubt about it, coffee was his preferred drink but he supposed tea wasn't too bad either. It had a settling effect on his stomach at least, and given his guts had felt like it was tied in a complex knot - that was a bonus.

Duo kept his right hand below the level of the table, using its cover to hide from Quatre the way he clenched and unclenched his fingers. That punch had hurt like hell but there was no way he would make it obvious to Quatre, who was pressing an oversized icepack over his eye and nose and glaring at him. Winner looked decidedly unimpressed, in fact he looked down right pissed, but Duo was not in the least bit repentant.

Rashid stood in the doorway, his broad back to them, keeping guard and giving them at least some level of privacy. Duo braced his feet as the semi-trailer negotiated what had to be a fairly tight corner, his visible hand holding the tea cup above the level of the table, dropping his elbow to stop the saucer from sliding as the trailer tilted with the tightness of the turn.

—000-

Quatre held the saucer steady with his free hand until their ride straightened out of the turn before taking up the cup and sipping the steaming contents. Rashid had insisted he drink tea. Why? He had no idea, but he was not concerned with the beverage at present. He preferred Turkish coffee but given their current location that was certainly not available and it was only an excuse to keep his hand occupied anyway.

He was surprised Duo had not broken his nose with that right hook and he was absolutely astounded a punch had actually been thrown at him. Duo had hit him! It was unbelievable, but it had happened and they now sat in stony silence. Rashid had been hovering over them, no doubt to keep the peace, while the tea had brewed. Maybe that was why the big man insisted on tea, the longer preparation time was the perfect medium to give them both time to cool down.

Really it was getting ridiculous.

Why had they started fighting in the first place? They could not afford to fight amongst themselves and why should Duo, of all people, be insulted that his friend had faith in his abilities? It made no sense.

He could tell his friend was tense and on edge and that was hardly surprising given what the man had been doing over the last few days. It had to be just the accumulation of tension and a big stress factor from being trapped up on the mountain by the blizzard.

/I suppose the surprise of finding himself here was a bit much./ Duo had obviously been stressed out and had needed a release. /He didn't have to hit me so hard though./

It really was a surprise that he had not broken his nose and he could feel his eye swelling despite the icepack, but he could not afford to hold on to his own anger at being solidly punched in the face. Much as he would have liked to return the swing there were other, more important matters to be seen to.

His nose might not be broken and he could feel his eye swelling despite the icepack, but he could not afford to hold on to his own anger at being solidly punched in the face. Much as he would have liked to return the swing, there were other more important matters to be seen to.

"I have always had a great deal of respect for you and for your abilities, Duo. I had no doubt that you would be able to handle the car and I was proven right. I know you have had a stressful few days; we all have. You are not the only one under pressure. We need to get over this and move on to more important matters. We have some sensitive discussions ahead of us and we can't afford to be sniping at each other. I've… taken a few liberties," he waved a hand to indicate their location, "to give us the chance to talk in private. It is best that no one we can not implicitly trust knows what we are going to talk about and we need to make some plans before things get out of hand."

There, he had extended the olive branch as a peace offering. An apology, though he was not too sure he was the one who needed to apologise. He was not the one who had thrown the punch after all. He could only hope Duo would take the offering and get over his mood so they could progress.

He did not like being at odds with his friends and he was worrying about Trowa. His lover would most certainly not be happy with his actions, but it should be a little early for Trowa to know he was missing… at least he hoped Trowa did not know. It was possible that Une might have informed his lover of their confrontation and, if so, then Trowa would be far from happy.

His lover would have a great deal to say on his strange behaviour, but he felt he had taken the best course of action given his suspicions. He would explain his reasoning as soon as he was able, which would not be exactly soon, he admitted. He could do with his lover's comfort but he was more than capable of acting on his own recognisance. Until he was certain of what he was dealing with, until he had confirmation of what he suspected, it was best to keep his lover from becoming involved.

It was best that only he and Duo were involved.

How much would Une reveal if she chose to involve Trowa? How much would she dare to reveal of the suspect organisation and the involvement of Preventer? Une knew how precarious all of their positions were in the current political climate. She was no more trusted than the Gundam pilots. It was ridiculous how they were being treated in the aftermath, especially after all these years, but facts were facts and they were hardly free to go about their business without watchers dogging their every step.

This was a crisis, though he doubted anyone other than he and Lady Une recognised it as such at the present time. If his supposition was correct, and he was sure it was… he was not accustomed to making stupid mistakes… there was an organisation out there, somewhere, armed with an unusual and decidedly dangerous potential. Whoever directed that resource had the potential to affect every decision of importance made within the ESUN and their direct influence on political matters, and could be undetectable.

Someone out there had the potential to be able to use the politicians of the world as their playthings and might have the inclination to shape the ESUN to the image they desired. But it was not just the politicians they might influence. Anyone from a street urchin to the most influential business CEO in the ESUN could fall prey to the machinations of what amounted to a puppet master. How easy it would be for people to unknowingly be used as tools… nothing more than toys to be played with. Puppets.

The implications had the potential to be disastrous for the peace they had fought so hard to attain. It was beyond frightening and Duo Maxwell, he was sure, held the key to the mystery. Or rather, he might hold a key. The first key to what was sure to be only the first lock that would unlock successive doors to a conspiracy that could shake the ESUN.

"Master Quatre?"

Turning in his chair he saw Rashid had turned in the doorway to face the small room where he and Duo stared in silence at each other, and was now holding a portable DVD player.

"Is that the recording from the terminal?"

"Yes, Master Quatre. A clean up team moved in to clear the site as soon as the area was clear. Our agents eluded discovery and forwarded this recording as soon as they could. I am informed the cleaners were not a Preventer crew."

He could not say he was surprised it was not Preventers who cleaned the terminal of all trace of the meeting that had taken place there. He could just be thankful his own people had not been detected in the area, let alone the discovery of them revealing a recording of the arrival of the helicopter. The success of his team gave him hope this suspect organisation did not boast a great many agents with 'special' skills.

"Do you have another copy of the recording?" At Rashid's affirmative Quatre smiled, and it was rather a grim smile. "Good. Try to identify as many of the people caught on camera as you can. Get as much information on them as you can safely glean without giving away the search. We need to be unsuspected of involvement for as long as possible. Leave that copy here and Duo and I will watch it in a few minutes."

He had succeeded in catching Duo's attention and that was good. He waited while Rashid placed the machine on the table and then withdrew, giving them some privacy by closing the rather thin and pathetic door. That Rashid had left them unobserved gave him hope that he had judged the danger of them coming to blows had passed. Quatre took a moment to sip his tea, gathering his thoughts, and trying to think of the best approach to use with an obviously temperamental Duo Maxwell.

He needed to explain as much as he could to Duo about why he was acting in the manner of what must seem like rather a bad spy movie. That was not exactly going to be easy. He had a lot of supposition, a lot of worry, and a lot of what many people would call fantasy to try to explain… and no conclusive evidence to back him. He had taken a lot of small incidents and fitted them together to give him a suggestive but very fragmented puzzle and he needed to fill in the gaps to make a better chance of viewing the larger picture.

He needed to confirm as many of his suspicions as possible, as quickly as possible, and if Duo could not offer him anything he could use, if he could not prove at least a small part of what he suspected was happening, then… Had he made a terrible mistake? Had he acted too quickly and endangered the lives and the livelihoods of people who depended on him?

He needed to know as quickly as possible if Duo, who was always an astute judge of character and had the knack to notice the smallest details, had noticed anything… peculiar… about Marquise.

"So what's going down, Quatre? Is that a record of what happened when Zechs and the others arrived at the terminal?"

At least Duo was talking to him and sounding considerably less belligerent than he had been. Progress. Quatre resisted the urge to sigh in relief, but it was a promising start after the disaster of earlier and he could feel the easing of tension in the other man. His space heart, his empathy, was hardly the most reliable on occasion and it had certainly let him down earlier, other wise he would not have a smarting, swelling eye and aching nose.

Sometimes he could read nothing of an individual's emotions, sometimes he could read only the barest flicker and at other times he might have been half the country away from an individual and could read them as though he was touching them.

Empathy, as Quatre lived it, was rather finicky. At the moment it informed him that Duo was still antsy, still on edge, but the temper had a less spicy flavour now the edge had been taken off.

Duo had never been one to hold on to anger for an unreasonable duration. To Quatre he was like magnesium, his temper burning fiercely and brilliantly, but quickly. It had always seemed as though Duo enjoyed life too much to hold on to anger for long. It took a great deal to make the young man hold on to that bright burning flame. Tick Duo off enough and he could develop a pet hate and that hate would feed a perpetual anger that would be rarely glimpsed day to day, but one day it would erupt into violent action.

Duo Maxwell was a curious creature and Quatre wondered if he would ever really know all of the little quirks that made up the man he called his friend.

"I'll explain, and yes, this would be the recording of what took place at the terminal. I had a team hidden in the vicinity, but we can watch this shortly. First… I need to know… Duo, did you notice anything… different… about Marquise?"

There was something in those blue eyes that could so abruptly swing toward dangerous violet that worried him. Duo straightened in his seat and seemed to consider him for a long moment with his eyes burning intensely blue. No danger of violence signalled by the violet shimmer at the moment, those eyes were still very blue and that was a sign of safety from that dark alter ego Duo referred to as Shinigami. No danger yet, but Duo was clearly wary.

"How do you mean, 'different'?"

Well that was a fair enough question, but how did he answer it? How did he exactly phrase what he wanted to know about a man neither of them really knew? Duo was observant, there was no denying that, but if he did not know what he was looking for would he recognise something of importance? Unless Marquise openly did something out of the ordinary that raised the hackles on the back of his neck, how would Duo know what sort of thing he wanted to hear? It was awkward to say the least, but Duo knew about his empathy and he would be more likely to notice anything of a similar nature than most others.

And Duo had that 'feeling' occasionally which led him to act where others would not. It was why he had gone up the mountain in the teeth of a rising blizzard, but how did you begin to talk about that without risking offending the man?

"Well… Did you notice anything… he might have… done that was… unusual?" Allah, that was pathetic. He had to do better than that.

Blue eyes narrowed. "Unusual?"

Teeth grated. He had never been good at talking about his 'space heart' to others. He was an empath and the other pilots knew it, but they never spoke about it to each other. None of them, himself included, ever brought up the subject in open discussion. It was just… accepted… that he knew… 'things' about people.

"Well… anything… strange? Odd? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary about him?"

Duo blinked, staring at Quatre as though he had grown a second head.

"Did I notice anything strange…? It's Zechs Marquise, Quatre, what the fuck is 'ordinary' about that guy?"

End

Karina Robertson 2010