Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the GW universe and make no financial profit from writing.

Warnings: 1x2 sap; angst, references to past NCS.

Note the First: A huge vote of thanks to Kaeru Shisho, ALG's editor and fairy-godmother par excellence. Thanks also to everyone who has left such positive feedback, for understanding that unfortunately reality sometimes has to take priority over fiction.

Note the Second: This is for Dyna Dee with best wishes on her birthday.

Chapter 79/94 - Rings and Things:

From the 'Sanque Times', 8th May 203 AC:

Breaking News:

One of the first Earth-bound shuttles to leave L4 since the colony erupted in open rebellion is due to arrive in Sanque this afternoon.

On board are Their Royal Highnesses, Milliardo and Relena Peacecraft, as well as all personnel from the Sanque embassy. Speaking via satellite phone twenty minutes ago, the princess confirmed that she, her brother, and all other Sanquian citizens had been treated with every courtesy by the rebels, prompting speculation that she may in sympathy with the anti-ESUN coup.

The princess also stated that her brother, who was shot in an unexplained incident less than a week ago, is doing well. His Royal Highness, who suffered a collapsed lung and massive blood loss during the incident, was cleared for space flight by his surgeons on L4. However, due to the gravity of his injuries, there has been widespread concern in Sanque for his welfare.

Princess Relena has so far made no official statements about the political situation on the colony, although Quatre Raberba Winner, a close personal friend, is believed to be one of the driving forces behind the colony's bid for independence.

The newly independent Nation of L4 declared its independence two days ago, claiming it wishes to escape ESUN repression and dominance. A spokesman for the government also claimed that Preventer agents were responsible for the abduction of Mr. Winner, who has repeatedly spoken in favour of more autonomy for individual nations; the murder of his fiancée and bodyguards, and an act of sabotage which destroyed a number of WEI-owned properties on L4..

Following the declaration, and non-stop demonstrations on Earth and the other colonies, both for and against the newly independent nation, the ESUN parliament in Florence has been in emergency session since last night.

It is not yet known what measures may be taken but political experts doubt the secession will be allowed to proceed peacefully, without facing some form of official ESUN retaliation.

The shuttle carrying the prince and princes is due to dock at 4 pm, local time.

Chang Wufei, the prince's fiancé and Duo Maxwell, a close personal friend of the royal family, arrived in Sanque this morning and were met at the shuttle port by Preventers agents. So far, no comments have been made to the press.

Both have featured heavily in the media over the past week; Mr Chang as result of his recent engagement, and Mr. Maxwell due to the rekindling of his old romance with fellow Gundam pilot Heero Yuy.

I should have been used to it by now; seeing my name in print. Wasn't like I hadn't had a semi-permanent slot in newspaper headlines for long enough. It had been a while though, until all this had started, apart from a few sleazy pieces speculating on threesomes with Zechs and 'Fei.

Back in print again with a vengeance now, though. I folded up the latest copy of the Sanque Times that Heero had left me to read, so hot off the presses that I'd smudged the ink with my fingers, and looked up as the door opened.

'All right?' Heero closed the door softly behind him and took the chair next to mine, and there we were, alone for the first time since I'd got back to Sanque, just the two of us.

I shrugged and then pushed my chair away from the table, stretching my arms over my head and feeling aching muscles protest loudly. All right wasn't exactly the best description of how I was feeling, but I was alive and back on Earth, with Heero, and that meant a damn lot. 'Fei and I had been in Florence for almost nine hours and from the moment we'd landed it had been a whirl of activity. There'd even been Preventer officers in the car that had taken us to HQ from the shuttle port.

Wufei and I were the first people to reach Earth from L4 since this whole mess had started. As soon as we reached the Preventers building, Wufei and I had been whisked off to be interrogated by different departments, wanting our impressions of the L4 rebellion, the extent of Quatre's involvement, and the whole abduction thing.

Heero had stuck with me the whole time. I'd got the impression that his Preventer pals weren't too happy, but no one wearing that uniform was going to deny Heero Yuy any damn thing he wanted.

It had helped, having him there. He hadn't been backward about showing how he felt either; he'd insisted on taking a break at one point for me to get some food and he'd told them – just before I reached screaming point – that I'd had enough, and needed to rest.

'I'm OK. I guess. Just – sort of wrung out. I thought Irving was the one who was going to get interrogated, not me!'

'I'm sorry.' He moved his hand the few inches across the table to mine, and squeezed.

'Not your fault. And I know it had to be done. Just…I've told them everything I can think of that might be even remotely useful. Ten freaking times!'

'I know.' He rose abruptly, pulling me up with him. 'Come on. You have to be exhausted.'

'We can just go home?' I blinked at him. 'Um, sorry. Your house.'

He shook his head, looking regretful that we couldn't and pleased that I'd called his house home. 'It's too far, Duo. Over an hour's drive. But there's a hotel five minutes away. You need a shower and a few hours in bed.'

'I need more than a few hours in bed with you,' I retorted. 'Can we just walk out? Won't those guys be pissed if I leave now?'

He frowned. 'You're not a prisoner, Duo. You've been gracious enough to help us with enquiries. Now, it's time for you to rest.'

'Not going to argue with that! Can we bring 'Fei with us? And where's Trowa? Shit! He's not locked up or anything, is he?'

He opened the door and ushered me through. 'Not at the moment, no. He took Wufei back to my house a few hours ago so he could get some rest before going to the shuttle port to meet Zechs and Relena.'

I made a face at him. 'What, was I the only one who got the advanced interrogation package?'

'You were the target all along. And you spent time with Quatre. Now come on. Time for you to get out of here. '

Hmm. I wasn't sure if High Command would see it that way, but no one stopped us leaving. Maybe no one was stupid enough to try.

The hotel was nice enough, in a generic, business traveller-y sort of way. I'd half expected Heero to come into the shower with me, but he didn't, allowing me that bit of space to myself. He stayed in the bathroom, though, making far more noise than necessary as he brushed his teeth and pottered around.

When I finally turned off the water and got out, he was there, wrapping a warm towel around me. He took charge of drying me off, in that single-minded way of his that meant there would not be a patch of damp skin on my body.

It took me a while to wonder why my cheeks were wet, when he'd already patted my face dry.

Heero kissed each of my eyelids in turn, fastening his arms around me and murmuring that I was safe now, that he'd got me. He held me while I cried for three children whose grandfather had plotted to kill billions of people; for all the lost kids of L2 and for the boy who'd managed to get away.

At some point, he got us both into bed. Poor guy; having to cope with yet another Duo-meltdown. He'd done it so often, he had the routine down pat; even after so many years, the drill was still the same. He made sure we both had clothes on; I was wearing a hotel bathrobe, and he'd just taken off his shoes and uniform jacket. He was holding me, but very lightly; nothing that could in any way be seen as restrictive. After his voice become more than a comforting background blur, I made out reassurances, endearments, threats of what he'd do to anyone who'd dared to hurt me.

There was a weird sense of déjà vu to it all. We'd been together for the last few months of the War, for almost a year afterwards. He'd done this more times than I'd ever want to count, after I'd been captured, or had a too-vivid nightmare, or, worst of all, after I'd pushed him into being a shade too…..dominant during sex.

There was familiarity and comfort and the oddest sensation that it wasn't really necessary.

I wasn't fifteen any more. While I couldn't say I'd got over everything that had ever happened in my past, I'd got better at coping. I'd got through it. I was still shaky as hell and there would definitely be nightmares, but I was OK. OK enough that I didn't really need all that coddling. It was sort of nice though, just to wallow in his strength and his love. After I considered he'd pampered me quite enough, I really let myself look at him.

There was the most god-awful strain in his eyes. I could hear the tension in his voice; could hear the effort he was making to sound gentle, to keep me from hearing the anger and the fear.

'He touched me here.' I said abruptly, flicking my finger against the place on my cheek where Irving had placed his hand. 'And my hair, just the once. That's all, Heero. I swear.'

'He touched your hair?' He sounded so outraged I almost smiled. Not quite, though. 'I'm going to kill the bastard.'

'No, you're not. That's too quick. I want him ruined, Heero. I want everyone to know what he was planning to do. The things he's already done. Him and Dekim Barton and whoever else is part of this. I want him to go on trial and I want it all over the fucking media and I want him to goddamn suffer.'

My voice was shaking as I got out the last words; my whole body was shaking.

'How bad was it?'

That was new; he'd never pressed for details before. He'd waited 'til I was ready. He wasn't a scared teenager any more either.

I swallowed. 'The worst was just…knowing. Knowing I was going back to L2, to that place. I always swore, never again. You know that. Once we were actually on the first shuttle, Wufei was amazing. He kept me from freaking out. And then there just wasn't time to panic once we were abducted. It was nearly easier; actually having the physical threat in front of us. You know. I guess adrenalin kicked in or something. There was just one really bad minute, with Irving. Like I was a little kid again and I couldn't do anything.'

I drew a very long, ragged breath, hating the way I was still trembling. Fuck, Maxwell. It wasn't like anything bad had actually happened. I was fine. No need whatsoever to be carrying on like this.

'I ….sort of remembered stuff. You know.' Even with Heero, that was probably the closest I could come to talking about said stuff. There was no need to expand anyway. He knew what I was talking about.

'It really helped having Wufei there.' That was a serious understatement. It had helped more than anything; I'd just been able to focus on keeping him safe. I'd sworn, during the War, that I'd never let that happen to him, and I hadn't.

'I should have been there. With you.' The guilt in his eyes was agonising.

'You were here,' I said gently. 'You were here doing something important. One of us had to be here for Trowa. I knew that.'

'It should have been with me you,' he insisted. 'Not Wufei. I swore that I'd never let anyone harm you again. I swore it, Duo.'

'He didn't hurt me, love,' I whispered. ''Ro, he hardly touched me.'

'Not just Irving.' I'd lost him; his eyes were shuttered, searching inside himself for some old guilt. 'Those other men. I left you and they hurt you. I know it happened, Duo.'

Oh, that. Well, of course he'd known about that. The entire universe knew about it. A former Gundam pilot getting himself into certain situations in S/M clubs had been manna from Heaven for the gutter press.

'That was not your fault, Heero.' I said the words very slowly, very deliberately. 'I was so screwed up that year that I didn't know half of what I was doing. Most of the time, I was stoned out of my skull. It. Was. Not. Your. Fault.'

He shook his head and it was my turn to feel the guilt. Those few months in 197, when I'd had my nasty little breakdown, must have been just as bad for him. I wondered if he'd seen the suicide attempt in the papers or if someone had told him first. Maybe Trowa or Sally. I wasn't sure if we'd ever get to the point of being able to talk about that. I wasn't sure, really, if I ever wanted to talk about that.

He gave me a stubborn shake of his head. 'I should never have left you on L4 by yourself, Duo.'

'No!' I grabbed his chin with one hand, making him look at me. 'You are not going to do this. You didn't know this was going to happen, or you would have stayed with me. I know that. You were doing something important, that needed to be done. One of us needed to go to Trowa and I had Wufei with me.' I took a deep breath, wondering if this was the right time. Probably not; there was never going to be a right time, but if he really wanted to wallow in guilt, he might as well load himself down. At least it would distract him from visions of me being hurt. 'Why the hell did you never tell me about you and 'Fei?'

It worked, sort of. His eyes flew open, at least. 'I cheated on you.'

'One kiss, when you were half asleep,' I scoffed, letting him hear the scorn in my voice. 'That does not constitute cheating, in my book.'

Wufei had claimed he'd thought Heero was still dreaming, presumably about me, that he'd mistaken Wufei for me. Maybe he believed it himself; maybe he'd been trying to make me feel better. I knew there was no way it had happened like that. I knew Heero far, far too well. He would have known it was Wufei, and he'd still responded.

'One stupid kiss.' I let a little bit of anger seep into my voice. 'You cut off your best friend for that. You're a moron, Yuy.'

'It wasn't just that. Duo, I..'

'I know.' I put my fingers over his lips, shutting him up. I knew, but I still didn't really want to hear him say it. 'You were attracted to him. I get it. It's OK. It's not like I never looked at him in his uniform and thought he was hot.'

'But I was with you!' He really was on a full-blown guilt kick; people always think Quat's the one who suffers the guilt complexes but he's only trotting after Heero. 'I had the love of my life and I shouldn't have…'

'The love of your life was a total screw up.' I gave him a gentle kiss on the mouth. 'Still is, sometimes. Heero, this is how it is. You are allowed to look at other people. You are even allowed to acknowledge that some of them are attractive.' That produced a faint flicker of a smile. 'Look at it this way; kissing Wufei sort of evens things out. I've smooched Zechs a couple of times; this makes us equal!'

He was suddenly on top of me; no more guilt shadowing his eyes, but they were burning. 'He'd better not kiss you again!'

'No,' I agreed affably. 'For one thing, Wufei won't want his fiancé carrying on with other men.'

He started to say something; closed his mouth with a little snap, then half opened it again.

'You could just say it,' I suggested, knowing I probably wasn't going to like whatever it was, but knowing that he'd be better off just letting it out.

'You and Wufei… I don't know…did you two ever….I used to think that you….Duo?'

'Um, what was the question again?' I teased gently, buying a little time, and then took pity on him. 'We were never lovers; I've already told you that.'

Some tiny bit of the tension went out of his expression. Part of me wanted to yell at him for that. I'd already told him. Even if I had, it wasn't really any of his business who I'd been with after we'd broken up. But really I knew just how I felt. I'd hate to think he'd been with Quat or any of the others.

Instead, I told him the whole truth. 'Quatre wanted me and 'Fei to get together, He arranged it so I'd move in with Wufei; in his mind, it was the most perfect solution. He knew you'd hurt both of us.'

'Quatre knew …Wufei and me?' Heero faltered.

'Not that you kissed,' I said quickly, and then suddenly wondered if it was true. It was just possible that Wufei might have told him. 'He might've guessed, though. Wufei used to have a kind of crush on you, after the war. I don't think you ever noticed.'

'I knew,' Heero admitted. 'He thought I was coping; he admired that. I don't really think it was ever more than that.'

I nodded; that much made perfect sense. Wufei had always been attracted to strength. No wonder; an introspective, bookish kid forced to become a warrior.

'Does he…' Heero hesitated, 'ever talk about Treize?'

'Not much,' I said carefully; not lying, but not wanting to give away confidences either. 'It wasn't easy, when he and Zechs started dating. They worked through it.'

'Why didn't anything ever happen between the two of you?'

I thought, for a minute, about…prevaricating and then just told the plain, unvarnished truth. I'd messed us up the first time around with prevarications and evasions and downright inventions. Surely I'd learned something in the past five years?

'Zechs.' I realised I was slowly unravelling my damp, hastily tied braid with one hand, and stopped myself, making myself look at him. 'He met Zechs. I think, I know, that something would have happened between us if he hadn't.' If I hadn't forced him out the door on their first date. I'd never expected it would come to anything, but thought it wouldn't hurt Wufei's ego to have a gorgeous prince pay him a little attention. We'd been on the verge of something; Wufei and I. I'd thought he'd come home to me eventually.

He had, of course, but he'd brought Zechsy back with him.

'Those two are just so….perfect together,' I said softly. 'I want what they have, Heero.'

They were perfect together because they weren't, really. I'd been there from the beginning and I'd seen at first hand the quarrels and compromises and how hard they'd worked at the relationship. They'd made their own Happy Ever After and valued it all the more because of it.

'I want that too.'

'But if there is any more illicit kissing, I will damn well cut your tongue out. I'm bloody sick of people trying to hurl themselves down your throat when you're not looking. Got that?'

It surprised him into a laugh. 'Got that.'

'Good.' I deepened my voice into a husky growl. 'You are mine. Mine.' I kissed him breathless, just to reinforce the lesson.

'I could get a tattoo,' he offered. 'Exclusive Property of Duo Maxwell.'

I grinned. 'Where would you put it, that's the question? To be any way effective, it'd have to be somewhere visible at all times, and that mightn't go down too well with your work. Maybe a ring instead?'

We both gaped at each other; googly-goldfish style, neither of us quite able to process the fact that I had just, however obliquely, proposed to him.

'A ring ….would probably work,' he agreed slowly, the words no more than tentative little puffs of air.

'I can't believe I said that!'

'Did you mean it?'

What an excellent question.

'I would very much like,' I said, rather carefully, 'to spend my life with you. Just I've never exactly been engaged before and I'm not sure…' I stopped mid-sentence, looking at his face, not sure what I would have said. I'd never been engaged. He had. It had never been made public or anything, but Relena had told me, years later, that he'd once proposed to her.

Seeing Heero at a loss is always a strange and scary thing. I don't see him, but echoes of a little kid who'd lost his parents, who'd become an assassin at the tender age of six, who'd spent years locked up in a fucking lab, as a mad scientist's guinea pig.

'Heero.' I touched his arm very gently, and that little kid was suddenly burrowed against me. 'It's OK. It was years ago.' I wondered, very briefly, if he would have told me if I hadn't known anyway and then squashed that thought. It wasn't like I didn't have secrets too. 'I just think I need to know what happened.'

'It was never like this.' His voice was muffled by my skin and hair and maybe something else but he had never let me see him cry for himself. He could cry for a dead puppy, or for things that had happened to me, but never himself. 'I love you. I missed you, and she was almost the only one who was still talking to me, and she needed me. It was never….I wanted to be with you, and she wanted to be with the person she'd imagined me to be, and …. Duo, if I tell you something, it goes no further. All right? The year before I –we – met Relena, she'd ….she'd had a bad experience.'

I nodded. 'Yeah. She mentioned it, once.' She'd been fourteen and one of the guys from her fancy school had asked her out to dinner and a movie. Her normally strict parents had approved; they'd known his parents from the country club. No one like that could ever hurt their daughter. And he hadn't, as such. He'd just kissed her a bit too forcefully and come on a bit too strong for such a sheltered young girl and called her names when she'd tried to stop him.

Heero shook his head wonderingly. 'Of course. I keep forgetting that you two are close now.'

'Yeah, well, we hadn't much choice once Wufei and her brother got serious.'

'I suppose not.' He smiled faintly at me. 'It's a little hard to imagine though. Anyway, I think, deep down, she knew I wasn't interested in her, like that, and that made me safe.'

I nodded, slowly. Of course it made sense. She was just another person who'd been hurt and who'd seen Heero Yuy as the ultimate protector. Like me; like all of us damaged kids who'd been drawn in by his strength and his purpose and that unbelievable gentleness. None of us seeing that he was just a damaged kid himself. When you put it all together, their aborted engagement wasn't really that important.

I picked up his left hand, trying to imagine a big sparkly diamond on his ring finger. Nope. A plain gold band would be OK, though. Maybe with an inscription. 01+02. No, not that. We weren't those people any more.

I tried to imagine that; the two of us vowing to be together forever.

Heero smiled at me, taking my ring finger and kissing it. 'Yes? One day?'

'One day,' I agreed, glad that he didn't want to rush out immediately. 'Not for a while, though. Can't steal Zechs and Wufei's thunder for one thing. And I think we should maybe get to spend some time together first. Sort out where we want to live and the kids and stuff.'

'That's fine. Can I ask you something? Do you remember that Valentine's card you made for me, the year after the war?'

I nodded, blushing a little. Of course I remembered. I'd been going through a seriously sappy phase at that point although, in my own defence, I'd never originally planned to give him the thing.

He'd been the one who was into us celebrating all these weird Earth holidays; on the sixth of January, we'd had to help Relena's palace staff take down all the Christmas decorations, and in early February he'd lit candles all over the place for some Mexican feast day. Somehow, though, I hadn't seen him getting into Valentine's Day; too sappy, too commercial.

I'd browsed through the cards in a bookshop, thinking it might be fun to send him a corny one as a joke; one that he wouldn't need to take seriously, and then decided to make my own. It had somehow come out as soppy as hell.

I'd spent days making it though, wanting my first ever Valentine's card to be special.

I love you more than anything. The only things I want for the rest of my life are to watch the sun come up every morning, with you; and to watch the moon and stars come up every night, with you.

'You still have that thing?'

'Of course I do.' He sounded mildly offended that I could have doubted it and then he bent down and kissed the hell out me. 'You are my sun, moon and stars, and the only thing I want for the rest of my life is to spend it with you.'

'It was Quat's idea,' I said softly. 'The card. He said I should give it you. I said you'd think it was stupid. He always did know you better than me.'

He didn't actually deny it; just gave a slight shake of his head, tilting my chin up so he could kiss me. 'I can't believe you're not trying to storm back to L4 and see what's going on.'

I jerked one shoulder. 'Not much I can do that the Preventers can't.'

'You've already done more than most of them.'

'Whatever. Not like I'd be allowed to do much now. You know damn well that Une won't let me anywhere near this.'

'Une,' he said quietly, 'is still being held on L4.'

'God, yeah. I forgot about that. I hope she's in a cell with no oxygen!' Well, what I really hoped was that they'd parade her through the streets of L4 and the good citizens would pelt her with unpleasant things. Pointy things that had been dipped in lethal, slow-acting poisons. I didn't say that, since she was still his boss. Oh, yeah. About that.

'Heero, my love.' I said it oh, so sweetly and watched his eyes widen in alarm. Good. 'At some point, dearest, are you planning to tell me just why you're parading around in a uniform with a major's stripes on the collar? Did you steal it?'

'No.'

I made my gaze reasonable and gentle and mildly questioning and watched him squirm. 'It's a very sudden promotion, even in the circumstances. From doing occasional freelance work and training seminars to being a high-ranking officer.'

'Duo.' There were obviously a number of things fighting to get out of his mouth, and all colliding before any of them could do so. 'Are you angry about this?'

Hmmm. Oddly enough, considering he hadn't been exactly honest with me, I wasn't. I'd kind of worked out that he just had to be more involved in Preventers than he'd claimed. I'd seen too many people kow-towing to him, rushing to obey any order it pleased him to give. I should have known, from the beginning, when he'd been going around with Preventers ID and pretending it was a fake.

'I'd handed in my resignation,' he said suddenly. 'As soon as I thought there was a chance for …us. I know how you feel about Preventers. And then all this happened and I…'

'It's OK. We'll talk about that after this is all cleared up. And I'm not mad with you. It's kind of sexy, you outranking me and all. Giving out orders.'

He grinned. 'You've never once done anything I've told you to. Is a uniform going to make a difference?'

'Not what I meant, Yuy. The new uniform's sort of sexy; I was thinking maybe you could put it on for me sometime and give me a little striptease. Shit,' I suddenly thought of something; he'd been handing out orders left, right and centre at Preventers HQ. 'Are you in charge of this whole operation?'

'Noin is, in Une's absence. I am …assisting.'

'So, um, shouldn't you be there? Instead of snuggling with me?'

'You're more important.' He rather spoilt that by adding that he could be back at HQ in a couple of minutes if he was needed, but that was OK. He'd found time for me in the middle of a mission, even if I knew he couldn't have done it if there'd been anything urgent going on.

Well, more urgent than the destruction of a planet and a colony and billions of lives.

Somehow he'd found a way to give us both a little oasis in the middle of it all, but we couldn't stay here for ever.

'So I'm assuming what happens next isn't going to be room service and sex?'

He shook his head regretfully. 'I have to get back. I'm supposed to be attending a meeting in an hour.'

Shit. Neither of us could afford to take time off. I should have gone to meet the shuttle that was carrying Zechs and Relena and those poor kids whom I kept dumping on other people. I should have found Trowa and talked to him. I should have thought about Wufei. I sure as hell shouldn't be distracting Heero. 'We should…'

'Duo, stop that.' He gave my braid a little tug. 'The world isn't going to end because you and I take an hour off.' There was a crooked little grin dancing on his lips. 'Sorry. Bad word choice.'

'You said it.' I didn't ask how long more we could hide away from the world; he'd tell me when we had to get back to reality. Instead, I just curled closer to him, determined that bloody Irving wasn't going to tarnish this little bit of time we had together.

Irving.

Lying there, with Heero's hand gently stroking up and down my hair, and listening to him breathe, to the beat of his heart, I had time to think for the first time since the shuttle had landed.

'You knew about Irving.' I didn't even bother to phrase it as a question. 'Preventers. You had to have known there was something dodgy going on.' I hadn't had time to work it out during questioning, but the interrogation had been way too polished. Half the time, they'd seem to know what I was going to say; to have the next question based on how I'd answer.

They had never seemed particularly surprised at a single thing I'd said.

'We knew something,' Heero admitted quietly, and then his arms tightened around me. 'God, I never thought you'd get caught up in it, that he'd ever do something like…'

'Stop it!' I blurted, worried that he'd be off on another guilt trip, given half a chance. 'Heero, don't be an idiot. I know perfectly well that you'd never put me in any situation like that. Just tell me about Irving, OK?'

He nodded. 'We didn't know anything definite. But we – they – Preventers monitor potential trouble-makers. Over the past year or so, Irving's become awfully friendly with certain people who are under surveillance as possible risks.'

'Would one of those people be Quatre R. Winner, by any chance?'

'Yes. We tried at least.' His mouth tightened. 'He has been singularly adept at avoiding anyone trying to tail him.'

Ridiculous, but I couldn't help a tiny grin at that. I'd taught him well. I couldn't suppress a sudden image of Quatre just after the War, either. He'd been staying at the circus with Trowa, with the Maguanacs camped outside his trailer and I remembered him laughing as he gleefully described how he'd borrow Tro's motorbike every few days and just take off.

'You saw him,' Heero said suddenly. 'You said he was on some of the news broadcasts. How did he look?'

'Not exactly ecstatic.' I frowned, thinking about it. 'Not like he was being forced with a gun to his head either. He looked – sort of resigned. He didn't say anything, not in the broadcasts I saw, anyway.'

'You do know he's in serious trouble for supporting this rebellion or whatever it is.'

'This is Quatre.' I stared at him, amazed that he didn't get it. 'Of course, he's on our side. If nothing else, he'd never support this stupidity. Never.'

Never.

'And he's not supporting it! He's been trying to warn us for ages, but we never copped on. For God's sake, he faked a suicide attempt so he could talk to you, remember? And he told you what was going on! Operation Meteor. We've known since then, but we never put it together.'

He expelled a frustrated little huff of air. 'I thought he was too drugged to know what he was saying.'

'Yeah. That's Quat. Such a freaking genius he forgets the rest of us are just normal mortals. And then he escaped, somehow, and tried to contact us. Shit, even yesterday when I went to see him, he was trying to warn me.'

God, had it only been one day since everything had happened?

'So.' I forced him to hold my gaze. 'You knew some of this, at least, even if you hadn't expected this particular situation. Or had you?' I swallowed. 'God, Heero. Someone out there seriously thought someone might try a re-run of Operation Meteor? Dropping a colony on to Earth?'

'There were simulations of worst-case scenarios,' he said tightly.

'Right. I assume that means there are some sort of arrangements in place to deal with these sorts of emergencies. Contingency plans.'

Well, of course there were. He wouldn't be here with me if there were any immediate threat. Really, I wouldn't want him to be.

'Am I allowed to know any of them?'

He shook his head, and just like that, we were back to his Preventer days, with him unable to tell me most of what was going on in his life. 'It's being dealt with. I promise.'

'Heero! There has to be something you're allowed to tell me!'

He sighed. 'I suppose it's all over the news by now, so you may as well know. The ESUN parliament has given L4 until six pm tomorrow to renounce all claims for independence.'

'Or what?'

'That's classified. I may be able to tell you something after the meeting. Or would you rather stay here?'

'No way. I want to go and meet Zechs' shuttle when it gets here, and I want to see the guys.' I looked at the little clock on the bedside locker. 'OK. Say, twenty minutes to get dressed and get back there. That gives us forty. Can we please not waste any more snuggling time?'

That surprised a laugh out of him. From the look of sheer relief on his face, he'd expected me to press him for more information. Which logically meant there was information that he didn't want to share.

Instead, I pulled him down for a kiss, acting like a good little Preventer partner, not pressuring him.

The thing that had always most hurt was that he'd followed protocols instead of trusting me. The principle of it all.

I'd given him the chance to share, and he hadn't taken it. Plan B, then. It wasn't like I wasn't perfectly capable of garnering the necessary information by myself.