It was past six-thirty; Heero was staring sleepily up at the ceiling and going through his daily mental battle over getting out of bed when Duo woke up, which was unprecedented at this hour unless he could smell coffee.

"What's the date today?" Duo mumbled into his shoulder.

Heero blinked down at the top of his head. "The 21st," he said.

That wasn't the answer Duo was hoping for, judging from the way he groaned and sagged into Heero's shoulder (and the arm currently trapped under him). "Fuck," he mumbled against Heero's bare skin before rolling away onto his back and rubbing the heel of his hand over one of his eyes. Heero took the opportunity to pull his arm away, flexing his fingers as the blood flow returned to his hand.

"Is there something important about today that you need to share with the class?" he asked, folding his hands loosely over his chest and rolling his head to the side to face Duo.

"No," Duo sighed, dragging his hand down his face one more time and then melting into the bed again. He blinked at the ceiling and then turned his head toward Heero. "I just gotta go send a money order, that's all. Before Con Ed shuts my power off and sends a collections hit squad after me."

Heero considered this and appreciated for the first time the fact that he'd never had to pay bills. "You could probably handle a hit squad. How many guys are they really gonna send?"

Duo grinned. "Probably depends how much money I wind up owing them for keeping the account open. You gonna back me up if it gets too hot for me to deal with?"

Heero rolled over and pinned him to the bed, nose to nose. "Maybe just send them their money, and then we won't have to find out how much my help with these collections assassins would cost you." He tilted his head to catch Duo's lips in a good-morning kiss before Duo could reply.

Duo got with the program promptly, threading his fingers through the hair at the nape of Heero's neck and sucking at Heero's bottom lip. Duo had him turned halfway over onto his back before Heero even realized it, he was so distracted. He broke the kiss; Duo didn't even slow down, insinuating a thigh between his legs and pressing up against him to start mouthing at the underside of his jaw. He reluctantly grabbed Duo by the shoulders, pushing him away and sliding out from under him at the same time.

"No, come back, I have plans for you! I was making a down payment against the Con Ed ninjas!"

"Should have gotten started earlier," said Heero as he got to his feet and out of Duo's reach, grabbing yesterday's clothes off the floor and throwing them on. "It's late; I need to go back to my room and get dressed."

"Late? It's like 6 AM! That's practically the middle of the night," Duo protested.

Just for that, Heero opened one of the curtains before he slipped out of Duo's room, letting in a beam of early morning sunlight that lanced right across the pillows. Duo's swearing followed him out into the hallway and he let his smile show on his face as the door shut softly behind him.

Relena was picking the peel off an orange and waiting for her mom finish her tea when Duo wandered into the breakfast room. "Pargan, there you are," he said. "I need to borrow some wheels to run an errand. And I also need to find out where Western Union is."

Pargan set down the dirty bowl he'd just picked up. "I believe there is one in one of the hotels downtown," he said.

"You're not going to be long, right?" Noin interjected from behind the newspaper. "You can take my car."

"Actually, Master Duo," said Pargan, "I have been intending to go wash the towncar. Please allow me to convey you to the hotel and both tasks can be accomplished."

"That's probably better than me getting lost with Noin's car," agreed Duo.

Relena looked up from her orange in confusion. "I thought we were taking the towncar this morning?"

Pargan inclined his head at her in acknowledgment. "Not to worry, Miss; if Master Duo is prepared to leave when I have cleared the table, we ought to return well in advance of your planned outing."

"Oh, gotcha," she nodded.

"In a clean car!" said her mom with a wink. "Lap of luxury."

"Nothing but the best for you, Mom," Relena winked back, popping an orange segment into her mouth as her mom laughed.

Duo helped stack dishes, over Pargan's protests, and the table was cleared in a few minutes. As Pargan ferried the dishes back to the kitchen, they all wandered out of the breakfast room in a loose herd and encountered Heero in the hall. Relena watched closely—okay, so she was always watching them closely since Hilde had dropped that bomb on her, but she was just trying to find the proof of it in their interactions—as Duo clapped a hand onto Heero's shoulder. He let it rest there once he had Heero's attention.

"Gonna pop out with Pargan to go do my money order," he said, jerking a thumb at the front door. "And wash the car, apparently. Back in a bit."

Heero nodded. "Wufei is going to ride along and back up Noin this afternoon; you get perimeter."

"Great," said Duo, his hand still on Heero's shoulder. "I love taking time to smell the roses."

"Have fun," said Heero. "You want a reminder next month, keep the hitmen off your back a little longer?"

Relena was having trouble trying not to look like she was lingering in the hall spying on them, but as she drifted away as slowly as possible, she thought she caught a glimpse of Duo's thumb stroking Heero's shoulder. "Yeah, thanks Mom," Duo said, letting his hand drop at last when Heero scoffed and then heading for the door when Pargan reappeared in the hall with the towncar keys.

It was the look that Heero gave Duo's back, one that stayed until the front door shut behind him, that made Relena feel absolutely certain that Hilde had been right. She also wanted to know why Duo was paying off hitmen, since it was her understanding that he was one, but she wasn't about to ask.

Heero turned away from the door and noticed her standing kind of awkwardly between a curio table and the entrance to the family dining room, but thankfully he didn't question her presence or seem to notice that she'd been hovering. "Good morning," he said with a nod.

"Morning," she smiled back.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and set an idle pace down the hall toward the back of the house; she fell into step alongside him. "How's the visit with your mother going?" he asked.

"It's been really good," she said. "I really missed her. I didn't realize how much until I saw her again. I wish she'd stay, honestly." She felt her smile pull a little with sadness and took a deep breath, schooling it back to normal.

Heero nodded but whatever he was about to say next was interrupted by a boom that rattled the windows. They both froze, staring at each other in shock, and turned as one to look at the front door.

Relena knew what that noise had been. She'd heard it before. That noise had killed her dad.

She was still wondering where on earth it had come from when Heero launched himself toward the front door. She was on his heels before making the conscious decision to follow and she heard him chanting, "No no no no no," under his breath as he reached the door and wrenched it open without stopping.

She smelled acrid smoke as they charged down the steps and flew over the gravel of the driveway. She was in her socks and the rocks jabbed the soles of her feet; she stopped feeling them as soon as she caught sight of the towncar.

It was still parked in front of the garage. Both front doors were hanging open; the back half of the car looked like a tornado had ripped through it. There was broken glass everywhere and the roof was punctured and dented. Smoke billowed out of every opening and she saw fragments of fluff scattered everywhere that she realized was the stuffing from the car seats. The airbags were all inflated. She couldn't see Duo or Pargan anywhere and wondered what that meant—they couldn't just be gone if the car was still there, could they?—but then she caught a glimpse of a person lying on the gravel near the driver's side.

Heero put on a burst of speed and was already rolling Duo and Pargan over onto their backs and checking for injuries when she caught up. Both of them were alive; Relena's knees gave out in relief and she dropped onto the ground next to Pargan, looking between the smoking remains of the towncar and him gasping and coughing on the ground, his uniform jacket tattered and cuts on his face.

"M-Miss," he managed.

"Oh my god," Relena breathed, crossing her arms over her stomach and huddling over them, over him. "Oh my god," she repeated. What else was there to say?

Heero had Duo cradled in his lap and looked really angry, like it was somehow all Duo's fault. Maybe he was an angry worrier; he did everything else angrily, she thought vaguely. She could hear Noin and Wufei running toward them.

Whatever had almost happened… whatever was supposed to have happened… hadn't happened. Everyone was going to be fine, she told herself firmly. That was all that mattered.

The explosion was the sound of his worst nightmare coming true. He hadn't even known that it was his worst nightmare until that instant. Heero didn't remember anything between hearing all the windows rattling and seeing the car. He was just… outside, and Relena was right behind him, and that wasn't safe but he couldn't deal with that right now, because Duo's bloody arm was stretched out on the driveway.

He could see that Duo was still breathing by the time he got around to that side of the car, so he willed himself to calm down enough to triage both their injuries. Pargan was also still alive, and conscious, and seemed dazed and banged up with some cuts that might need stitches but that was mostly it, so Heero dragged him a little further from the smoking wreckage of the car and arranged him more comfortably on his back for someone else to deal with—Relena could do it, she could be there for him—and then set himself to making sure Duo was okay.

Duo was more cut-up than Pargan and from the looks of the car, Heero could guess why. But he was awake, even if his pulse was unsteady and his breathing was raspy and he was starting to shiver already. Heero dragged him away from the car, pausing a second to satisfy himself that they weren't going to have a secondary explosion from the gas tank or something, and pulled him onto his lap to hold on tightly.

Duo leaned into his chest and rested his head in the crook of Heero's arm. He was trying to control his breathing but kept coughing.

"Anything broken or punctured?" Heero asked, looking for blood and then searching his face for a pain reaction.

Duo shook his head. "Claymore," he whispered. "Aimed at the backseat."

Heero spared the blown-out car a glance before looking over at Relena. She was kneeling beside Pargan and looking sick.

Duo shifted in his arms and Heero reflexively hugged him tighter before forcing himself to relax. He helped Duo sit up a little more on his lap. "I saw it through the window right as I was about to get in," he said, tucking his head into Heero's chest. Heero let his chin rest on Duo's head.

"So you decided to be a meat-shield?" he asked, his words muffled by Duo's hair.

"I was trying to tackle him out of the car. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt, thank fuck, but the driver's door slowed me down and his hand was on the key already."

Heero closed his eyes. Noin was running across the lawn from the near side of the house while Wufei came from the other direction. Hopefully Hilde was indoors, somewhere defensible, and covering Mrs. Darlian.

"If it hadn't been directed toward the backseat," said Duo, "we both would have died for sure."

"If you hadn't noticed it by chance, you'd be in a lot more pieces right now regardless," said Heero. "Why didn't you do a visual inspection before he got in the car?"

"I would have!" said Duo. "If Relena had been getting in the car."

And if Duo hadn't forgotten to pay his power bill until the last minute and if Pargan hadn't decided the car needed to be washed, they'd be living out that possibility instead right now. "Check all the cars from now on," said Heero, ignoring for one more moment whatever Noin was saying above them. "Check them twice."

"Man, you're telling me," said Duo, coughing weakly again and trying to burrow deeper into his chest. "My ears are ringing."

Nadia's information had been good; Trowa found the music teacher the same day he arrived in Doha. He tailed the man for six hours through an extremely uninteresting day of errands and music lessons before he went home to a modest apartment building. It was a walk-up; Trowa sat in his rental car across the street and watched H's plodding silhouette appear and disappear in the stairwell windows, up and up, until he failed to appear in the fifth floor window. Fourth floor apartment, then. Trowa scanned the line of windows before him but there was no movement of someone coming home, no lights turning on or curtains opening or closing. Not a street-facing apartment, then; he'd have to make a bit of an effort now to stake out the place, if he wanted to get a look inside H's hidey-hole.

He hadn't seen any trace of Quatre all day and was gambling on the theory he'd be staying with H. Nadia hadn't said anything about Winner family property in Doha. He could be in a hotel, Trowa supposed, but that seemed less likely; hotel rooms were hard to keep secure and longer stays drew attention, meaning he'd have to pick up and move periodically. Quatre would hate the liabilities of being in a hotel for an indeterminate length of time, so Trowa was confident he was here instead. Either way, it seemed inevitable that if he followed H around long enough, he'd eventually find Quatre.

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while he debated his next move. This seemed like just nice enough of a street that if he slept in his parked car, someone would come tapping on his window. It would be a poorly-secured hotel room for him, then, because he desperately needed a few hours of sleep.

Daybreak found Trowa lounging on a bench in a courtyard with a line of sight on H's building, nursing a black coffee and hiding his dry, itchy eyes behind sunglasses. The neighbourhood was waking slowly; the hum of early morning traffic was accompanied by the percussion of car doors slamming and the bass of engines starting, all under a melody of radios and televisions and kettles and family chatter spilling out of apartment windows like the clotheslines of drying laundry. A businessman emerged from H's building and got into an Audi parked at the curb. A lady up on the seventh floor opened her window and pulled in a pair of scarves fluttering on her clothesline. It wasn't too hot out yet and it was almost peaceful; Trowa hummed a song under his breath to keep himself awake.

People kept emerging from the building who were neither H nor Quatre. Trowa didn't know how much time had passed but his coffee was down to cold dregs when someone spoke from behind his right shoulder.

"Did you take a contract to be the neighbourhood watch, or what?"

Trowa somehow managed not to yelp, jump out of his skin or dump the remains of his coffee on his lap, but he couldn't have said how. He did leap off the bench and turn around in one movement, dropping the paper cup on the pavement and making a reflexive move toward his gun. Quatre looked (deceptively) relaxed, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his head tilted to the side as he looked Trowa up and down.

"I assume you think the sunglasses are inconspicuous," Quatre added after a moment of mutual silence. "They actually make you look like CIA. People are talking," he said, pulling a hand out of his pocket to wave vaguely at their surroundings.

Trowa finally marshaled words to his command. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked. "Why did you drop off the face of the earth?"

"I obviously didn't 'drop off the face of the earth'," Quatre said with a trace of annoyance. "If I had, you wouldn't have found me. How did you find me?"

"Your sister."

Quatre blinked.

"Nadia," Trowa clarified.

"Nad—wow." Quatre pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, muttering something too quietly to make out. Trowa realized after a second that he was laughing a little. "That's the last time I underestimate her," he said when he straightened up again. "But, look. I appreciate her concern, and your concern, but she sent you on a wild goose chase. I'm okay. I'm fine. I just needed to… not be Quatre Winner for a while. And that's what I'm doing. So, it's nice to see you and I'm sorry she told you whatever she told you to make you waste your time and energy looking for me. Please tell everyone I said hello."

It was a pretty unmistakable blow-off. Trowa parsed Quatre's words and then put on his poker face; Quatre assumed Nadia had sent him to do some kind of welfare check on her behalf. Either Quatre didn't know the Maganacs were trying to monitor him or he didn't suspect Rashid would get Trowa involved. Sensing that this mistake was keeping Quatre from seeing him as a threat, Trowa didn't correct him.

"It really means a lot that you left your sister and came all this way to see how I'm doing," Quatre continued. "And you've done that now and I'm fine, so you can go home." He crossed his arms.

There were small signs of tension starting to show themselves now that Trowa had had some time to observe. Quatre was squinting a little, as though he had a headache or something. He was chewing his lip (which already looked chewed). His fingers gripped his upper arms a little too firmly, making his forearm muscles stand out in sharper relief. He looked like he might actually start humming with nervous energy any second. Rashid and Nadia had been right about him getting into trouble out here. "Why here, though?" Trowa asked carefully. "Where are you staying?"

"Mostly with H," said Quatre. "Which you must know since you're staking out his building. I trust him. He's been an important part of my life for a long time. He… he knew my family. It helps to be around him."

Trowa nodded, not buying the explanation. But Quatre was anxious for him to leave, and he wasn't going to be forthcoming with his reasons for being in Qatar anytime soon. "Well, if you're sure you're okay," he said. "It's good to see you. Don't be a stranger."

They embraced with firm pats on the back, separating far too quickly. Trowa picked up his coffee cup off the ground and left with a nod, going back to his car and then to his hotel, ready to plan real surveillance of Quatre's activities. He was willing to bet Quatre had no idea how well he could hide in plain sight.