A/N: So after five months *grimace* this fic is back and hopefully people are still interested *fingers crossed*.

This fic will be updated on Tuesday's once every two weeks. I do have four chapters after this one written but I still have a long way to go so in order to not go on hiatus again, I will do this update pattern for now. If I get further ahead of myself, I may go to weekly but we'll see.

Thanks to ELLE for beta/discussions and general encouragement ;-P

Song for the chapter is Pompeii by Bastille.

Chapter Nine

An Optimist About This

If I characterised myself I'd say I'm a pretty optimistic guy. I mean, yeah, I've seen and done some shit, and yet I still keep coming back. I try to see the good in people even when they probably don't deserve it. Yeah, I mean, I can be pretty self-deprecating, I can get fucking pissed at evil motherfuckers and you really don't want to know some of the things I've seen. Not when I was undercover. Not before that on the streets. The world ain't a pretty place and that I can confirm that.

But I was running low on optimism as we'd walked outta the London Field Office, the words of Zechs Merquise running around my head, the snide look, the way Wufei just nodded at our superior like some boy scout rather than the badass Preventer and former Gundam pilot he was. As we stepped into the elevator I couldn't help being a little childish as I leaned against the side of it, the smooth mirrored finish against my back, my head looking at the pattern on the floor instead of looking at 'Fei's face.

"I don't think the boss likes me," I said, making conversation and Wufei snorted under his breath.

"I don't like you most of the time, Maxwell," he shot back. "And you don't like him. You've made that clear."

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm – I'd not forgotten our banter but I had kinda missed it. It was fun pissing him off even if it was only mildly and I knew Zechs wasn't exactly his favourite person in the world either but shit, he made my skin damn crawl. Maybe I had no real experience with him but I knew 'Ro's feelings. And the way he'd looked at me, the way he'd told me that he trusted we'd "act appropriately" during our "tenure in London" and that we wouldn't "do anything that would annoy the local authorities" – he'd said all of that barely looking at Wufei, his blue eyes levelled at me and I could do nothing but nod until we were out of the building, until we were away from the official organisation and making our own way around the city.

We'd dropped our little Preventer drivers as quickly as we damn well could – making our way around the city via foot and the underground system. That was how you travelled around London, that much I knew from my research and Wufei knew our route so I followed his lead – he was my boss, oh captain my captain and el presidente. Had to listen to his orders.

We decided to get right to the investigation. Hey, I'm not one for waiting around sitting on my ass and what was our other option – an awkward evening in our hotel room? Me not saying nothing about my imminent marriage or whatever the fuck while he pretended to ignore it? Or would we just work together, look at files, hover around each other, trying not to touch as maybe, hell, I didn't know – he might still have feelings for me and I was an asshole? It was better to get to damn work, to investigate as that was what we were here to do and I wanted to feel the sidewalk under my feet, I wanted to find out a little about this kid that was not just shitty info in a file or photographs on a damn tablet.

The underground, the tube system kinda amazed me. Okay, I'm a colony kid – we didn't have this shit on L2 – and Wufei purchased tickets from a nice little machine on the Preventers' dime as I looked around watching as people shoved tickets through turnstiles or used a card against a reader until they opened. They all walked with such damn purpose that it made me laugh. As an undercover op guy, part of my job was observing people and behaviour and the behaviour was damn fun to watch – people rushing and not looking at anything else but their purpose. Get to train. Get to job, shop, home, whatever. It was all so fast paced that I wanted to tell people to chill or something but instead, I just watched the patterns of people's lives briefly until Wufei handed me a card.

"Don't lose it – I've put Preventer money on this."

I rolled my eyes and gave him my best charming smile. "Me? Lose shit? You totally got the wrong guy."

"Just don't."

"Someone's touchy. Zechsy baby get your panties in a bunch?" I felt like I could almost see a vein stand out in relief on his forehead as he gave me a glare that I didn't quite get. "Touched a nerve?"

He didn't say anything only brushed past me to get to the turnstiles, waving the card over the sensor and walking through, leaving me to catch up. I thought for a second how damn easy it would be to jump them but, being a good boy, I didn't and all.

"Hey, Zechs was all on my back so you are golden, 'Fei."

The grunt that left his lips made me damn suspicious but soon I forgot all about his unusual behaviour and that look he'd given me as we were going down to the station via escalators, me observing the screens that advertised shows in the West End and whatever else. Museums. Aquariums. Zoos. Tourist stuff. Hell, I'd never been anywhere as a tourist – never been somewhere and just enjoyed the place. Wondered if Heero ever had. Damn doubted it. Huh, we could have a Honeymoon – but that idea nearly made me snort out loud. Honeymoon? Fuck me. The idea messed with my head.

Wufei didn't know my internal monologue as we got to the platform, waiting for a train to slide up to the station and I put my hands in my pockets, stared at the big commercial for Jack Daniels and kicked a little at the floor with my boots. I fiddled with my phone as I'd checked it for a message from Heero and there was none. He coulda at least responded with an 'ok' or something but then this was new relationship territory. And we weren't suddenly gonna turn into a perfect couple just because we'd put rings around our fingers. I then played with that until the train pulled up and we stood in the carriage, 'Fei's hand holding onto the pole as I leaned against a doorway, my legs crossed as the train rattled underground. I glanced up briefly, looked at the map of the system seeing the lines – Jubilee, Northern, Victoria and the others – all of them criss-crossing in different colours and I chuckled under my breath like an immature kid when I saw the station called 'Cockfoster's.' I may be a grown man with a fiancé and a badass job but I sometimes have the humour of a twelve year old – sue me.

We arrived at our station, Angel, and my hand seemed to automatically go to my arm and my shoulder – that angel tattoo that covered the skin there. The angel tattoo that was not at all Heero related. Yeah. Right. And I remembered our last night in that hotel room in Sanc and then tried to forget it just as quickly. Thinking of that, of him fucking me so damn perfectly, was not the best idea and so I let that happy thought go as we made our way back up to the surface.

The first stop in our investigation was the student halls that our shooter lived in and I was kinda amazed as we arrived. The kid was studying at the London School of Economics and even with my limited knowledge of the earth sphere's education system – hey, I'm nowhere near dumb, I'm just not traditionally educated – I knew that it was an expensive damn school. I was quick to realise that our kiddo was not some random run of the mill student and it made it all seem a little weird as we made our way into his residence.

The place was not like some student digs I'd seen. I mean, damn, it was like a fancy ass apartment complex rather than the usual and we had his room number from all the nice intelligence the local Preventers had done. We walked up a flight of stairs and along a corridor where the sound of different music drifted on the air as we passed rooms. Most doors were shut, a few propped open, and I glanced in a few to see the images of students on beds studying like they should be. Pretty normal. Average. That's what I coulda done with my life. Instead I was walking a pace behind 'Fei with a gun and a badge. I don't think I did normal.

We arrived at the door, the number 212 on a little brass plate, and as I got close enough to knock on the wood, I smelt it. The smell of a dead body.

There is a smell that bodies have that I can recognise from a few paces away and I was damn surprised that none of the other people in the building had reported it. But that was life, you know? We live so damn preoccupied by our own shit that sometimes we ignore those things and this was one of those. We knocked on the door but as I glanced at Wufei, I knew that he knew what I knew. Once you've smelt a corpse you never forget it. And neither of us had lived the most conventional lives.

The first corpse I'd seen was an old dude that I poked with a stick with Solo looking over me as I did it – some sorta dare, some sorta proof that I wasn't scared and I was young, so damn young, I guess around five, six, whatever and I'd done it to be brave and cool. Though that night I'd barely slept thinking about that man, imagining him coming back for me in that warehouse we slept in and punishing me for disturbing him in death. And I remembered Solo walking over, coming underneath the blanket with me and letting me share his warmth and comfort, him not saying a damn thing as if he knew it was shocking to see that first dead body and it was as if he knew the vivid images in my head.

That was the first one. I remembered it damn well. It wasn't the last. And today – this one wouldn't be the last.

Our knock was ignored and I nodded to Wufei as I brought out my lock picks. Old habits and all. He would've shaken his head and mocked me if we didn't want to get in quickly. I could imagine him telling me to follow procedure – maybe get someone from the school to open the door but you know, he was as impatient as me though he didn't show it so obviously. He reached for his gun as I jimmied the lock, nodding at him when it was done before pushing down the handle and entering the room.

The smell was worse once the door was opened and I grabbed my own gun as we walked in, raising it to an empty room. Well, the room was not empty, there was the corpse but the room was also damn cold – London and all and the window being open had probably made the smell less noticeable – less sickening – and it had been done on purpose. Smart. There were a few stray flies buzzing but the cold had stopped the process of decomp going too far just as it had stopped the smell from being too bad. Smart again.

I walked in and 'Fei followed, closing the door behind us – after all, didn't want someone to see this. Hell, I didn't want to see this but I had to. I raised the sleeve of my jacket to my nose as I lowered my weapon, holstering it as I knew now we were not going to be needing it as the stiff on the floor was not a concern.

"Call it in?" I asked, looking at Wufei and he didn't answer, only reached for his cell phone and began calling our damn illustrious commander. So I guessed. I bristled at the damn thought of him – his blond hair all foofy and his eyes all sharp and blue. The way he looked at me, in that way that suggested I was gonna be damn trouble and shit, I did not want our first day of investigation to be this – to be a body whoever the fuck it was.

I didn't want him waltzing in but it was what was gonna happen. This was our first port of call, this was us trying to get an understanding of the kid and look at where he lived – get more from the impression we got from pictures in a report – and as I looked around, I realized the Preventers had already been here. They'd searched, they'd ripped this place to shreds and they left it and we were here because I wanted to "get" the kid – I wanted to know which posters Aaron Jones had on his walls, you know, which chicks were on his floor that he tried to get to know and that sorta shit. And there was no way in hell there should be a body.

Wufei finished his call and I was kneeling down, keeping my distance – I was not touching this body with anything or part of me and I'd shoved my braid down the back of my jacket to be sure – and I looked at the face, at the indicators. The body had been dead for some time but how long it had been here was a mystery. It was a guy, young, young enough to be a student and he had probably been a pretty average looking kid if he wasn't dead. Nothing interesting. Probably good looking enough to make his way with the ladies but not some lady-killer. I was no crime scene tech but I'd seen enough bodies, like I said, I've seen too fucking many and I tried to work out how he'd died. It was then, as I leaned forward, I saw some rope burns and bruises around his throat and I reached back for my gun to move the collar of the kid's hoodie a little to see some indicators of strangulation.

"Don't."

I looked up at Wufei. "I ain't contaminating anything."

He made a "humph" noise, his arms folded across his chest and I knew he was thinking I was likely to – that I was gonna fall forward and end up with my hair on him or whatever but I wasn't that dumb. And I stood up cautiously, slowly, my weapon in my hand.

"You wanna guess why a strangled kid is in the dorm room of our shooter?"

"I don't speculate."

It was a statement that left no room for manoeuvre and debate so I sighed, walked a few steps to the window to breathe some air that was not smelling of rotting flesh and looked out at the road. This was a nice part of London, that much I knew despite my shitty knowledge of the city. This was a fancy ass school and I was looking out at some trees and a street with white row houses. I'd never been in a place like this and I couldn't imagine someone just studying here and I turned back around in the room, saw how Wufei had brought out a tablet and was making some notes like a good ol' agent and I looked at the posters – one of some sci-fi movie I'd not seen, a video game I hadn't played and a chick I didn't know who the fuck she was wearing very little and it didn't help me. Average kid and all.

There were no books left in the place, no sheets, or clothes or personal possessions – everything had been taken by the Preventers for analysis and we had the information in our reports. Nothing remarkable. Text books. No 'how to shoot a princess' memoirs. His laptop had been dull as shit and had nothing on it which meant one of two things: he either was a whizz with computers that was comparable to one Heero Yuy and as I believed no one was as fucking good as Heero, I highly doubted that – or he didn't do anything on that particular laptop.

I whistled under my breath and 'Fei looked up, glaring a little as I was annoying him. The preliminary interviews with his parents, his friends had all brought up nada and as I stood in this room, I saw nothing that said this kid was involved in shit.

Oh yeah. Apart from the corpse. As I looked back down at it again, I blinked as I spotted something. The kid's clothing had not been that interesting to me, you know, it was kinda like what any young dude might wear. It was what I wore. Jeans. Hoodie. Yet there was no tee underneath – that I'd guessed when I'd moved the collar – but I was looking at the strangulation and wasn't that interested in checking out the kid's skin. I mean, he was not decomposing properly yet but it was not pleasant, you know, and I don't wanna look at a corpse's bare chest.

But I saw it then and I knelt down, a slight sick feeling that was nothing about the smell or getting close to the corpse. I pulled my jacket arm over my hand and reached for the zipper awkwardly.

"Maxwell!"

I heard him, of course I did, and yeah he was my boss and all but I didn't give a fuck right now as I'd seen the black lines, oh those fucking feathering black lines and I pulled at the zip, the material parting as I tried to do this without doing anything to ruin the evidence. I parted the fabric and looked over the skin of the kids chest and I almost was damn sick – not from the corpse but from what I saw.

I stood, walked a coupla steps back as Wufei looked between me and the corpse. There were words I wanted to say, explain, but instead I just removed my Preventer jacket, 'Fei looking at me damn confused as I did that. He hadn't seen this. He'd seen some of them but this was at the top of my arm and shoulder and I didn't know, didn't think he'd ever seen it fully, so I unbuttoned my shirt with shaking fingers, stripping down to my black tank and his eyes widened in recognition.

As on the chest of the corpse in front of us was an exact damn replica of my angel tattoo. Its placement was different, on his chest, its wings across pectoral muscles, but the lines were the same – the whole fucking thing.

It was my tattoo. The tattoo I had got as some symbolic thing for my love for a spandex clad suicidal asshole even when I tried to deny that I gave a shit. A tattoo that few people knew I had. Its placement meant it was rarely out in damn public – I intended that as it was personal – hell my entire sleeve was personal but that one, that fucking one…

I swallowed as I looked up at Wufei. "I have no fucking idea."

"Neither do I."

It was the least reassuring thing the guy had ever said to me as I gazed back down at the corpse and the angel ready to fly or fall – any trace of optimism for this whole investigation fucking gone.