This has been a test of the legacy story/author alert system.
Heero figured on needing to stay hidden for as long as a month to get OZ to call off the hunt for Relena, and had chosen a hiding spot accordingly. It was in an entirely different municipality than the farmhouse where Relena, Noin and Hilde were holed up.
Wufei turned up at their safehouse after two days.
"Who the fuck let you in?" Duo demanded when he arrived.
"I picked the lock," he said incredulously. "It's not even a good lock."
"I mean, how did you even know which lock you were picking?"
"Oh. Hilde sent me a message."
"That traitor," Duo hissed.
"Think she just wanted to know where I'd be so she can come and tear me a new asshole for leaving, if that makes you feel better about it, Maxwell."
Duo glared at him for another couple seconds. "A little," he said finally.
"So what's the plan?" Wufei asked, looking around at their living room. "You don't expect me to stay here and play house with you idiots, do you?"
"You can do whatever the fuck you want, Wufei," said Heero. "But I don't expect OZ to lay off anytime soon, so we're staying here. I have two backup places lined up if we get found."
Wufei nodded slowly in understanding, and then said, "Treize and Dekim Barton are dead."
They all stared. "What?" said Quatre.
"So I don't think OZ exists in any worthwhile way, anymore," continued Wufei. "I doubt that Lady Une feels prepared to take the reins. Or this General Catalonia asshole. Treize was the brains and Barton was the money. And Zechs Merquise is, well, he's gone."
"What do you mean, gone?" said Heero sharply.
"He was in the room with them," said Wufei lightly, like he was talking about his train ride back or something, "and he helped me instead of them. And then he fucked off. Going to have a midlife crisis or something, I don't know."
"He's only in his twenties."
"Quarter-life crisis, then."
Duo blinked and then turned to Quatre and said, "Speaking of Catalonia, did you let that girl go?"
"Oh, yeah," said Quatre. "She's fine." He cleared his throat. "I also told her I was letting her go because her grandfather wasn't willing to trade anything for her safety, and from the face she made at that, I don't think we'll see her again."
"Most of Barton's family is dead," said Duo. "Because of us, actually." He coughed. "So she most likely has a pretty good stake in Romefeller Industries, now," he pointed out.
Quatre looked visibly pained at that. "Oh well," he said, aiming for casual and missing by miles. "I'm sure it's probably fine."
Wufei looked around at them all. "All right, well, I have an angry girlfriend to appease, so I'm going to get that out of the way as fast as possible by going back to the estate and checking on it for you. I'll send a message by our secured channel with the all-clear."
Une was not likely to come back and try again if she had no chain of command left to report to, so Heero felt good about moving up their timeline. "Be safe," he said.
"Or don't," Duo chimed in.
"Fuck you, Maxwell," said Wufei on his way back out the door.
The whole country took the week off when Relena made her public announcement.
"I thought she was gonna be crowned queen or whatever," said Duo. "I was expecting a coronation, not a press conference."
Hilde shrugged. "I don't really understand how monarchies work, but Pargan and Mrs. Darlian both assured me this is how it works. I just assume it's something sexist."
Relena walked up to them, fiddling with one of her long gloves. "What are you two talking about?" she asked.
"Just coordinating security, Your Serene Highness," said Hilde smoothly.
Relena glared at her.
Hilde smiled back, unrepentant. "Why are you glaring? That's your job title."
Relena pointed at her threateningly. "Thin ice," she said, and walked away.
Duo watched her go. "I like her," he said.
"She's alright," Hilde agreed.
"Glad to hear you think so, since I also hear you accepted a permanent position."
She smiled at him. "Think I've found my calling."
"As a bodyguard to European royalty. You don't aim low, Hilds."
"I'm also her German tutor, but that's just a favour as her friend, really."
"And what did Wufei have to say about this career move? You settling down here permanently?"
She looked at her nails. "What the hell do I care what he thinks?"
"I approve of any chance to dunk on Wufei, but you forgive him, don't you?"
She was still looking at her nails like they held the secrets of the universe. "Not yet. Just because I liked the results doesn't mean I approve of his methods. He can learn not to go off half-cocked and do stupid and life-threatening shit without a word to anyone, and then maybe I'll think about it."
He gave her a one-armed hug and kissed the top of her head. "You and Trowa should form a club."
"What makes you think we didn't?"
He'd just opened his mouth to banter back when his earpiece came to life. "Delta, what's your twenty?"
"I'm with Hotel, backstage," he said.
Heero's response sounded vaguely annoyed. "You're supposed to be patrolling near the south entrance right now."
Duo rolled his eyes, because he was actually supposed to start heading that way right now, but all he said was, "Acknowledged. I'm en route." He gave Hilde a little salute and went off to do his job.
"November, Tango, Quebec, Whiskey, time for check-in." said Heero in his ear as he wound his way through the maze of hallways around the conference centre. Duo half-tuned them out but gave Trowa a nod hello on his way past the east entrance, hearing his check-in both through his earpiece and in person. At least it was only two words.
They finished getting the press corps all checked in and through security, locked down the entrances, and then the show was ready to begin. Heero silently appeared next to him in the back of the conference hall, and they leaned against the wall together to listen to Her Serene Highness Princess Relena of Liechtenstein begin her formal address. Duo had actually already heard the speech about fifteen times while she was rehearsing it, so he tuned her out and leaned in a little to tell Heero, "You can unclench now. It's all finished."
"It's not finished till she leaves this conference centre and gets home safely," Heero murmured back without looking at him.
"You've been wound up for weeks, dude. It wasn't about this." He waved vaguely at the packed room, which was full of hired security professionals all under their command.
Heero finally spared him a glance; Relena was on the part of her speech about embracing her country's role in global politics, a polite hint that she intended to get involved with the UN (and boy, did she have some intel for their security committee). "You think this was a walk in the park to plan?" Heero asked.
"For you? Yes. You held off a siege by an army with six people. And one of those six people was late."
Heero looked away again, but Duo could see the smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. "Eh, it's not about the numbers, it's what you do with them."
"Sun Tzu, reincarnated," teased Duo, which got him a (fairly gentle, since they were working) elbow in the side.
"Let's get dinner, after," said Heero, walking away before Duo could even answer.
"Cocky," muttered Duo to himself, although he knew his grin was practically splitting his face. He refocused on the very important task of security before he got too much more distracted.
"McDonald's?" Duo said when they stopped in front of the restaurant. "Are you fucking joking?"
"What?" said Heero, bumping their shoulders together as he looked up at the sign, too. "You haven't been to one in Liechtenstein yet, have you?"
"How did you even know that?"
Heero arched an eyebrow at him. "Why wouldn't I know that?"
Duo huffed. "If you think this is a romantic gesture," he started.
Heero grinned. "There's an Italian place around the corner. If you want."
He glared harder. "No," he bit out, "I need to cross this country off my list. Before I leave. And you're buying."
"Anything you want," Heero promised.
"I'll order the entire fucking menu," he threatened, leading Heero inside by the hand.
"If that's what you want." Heero sounded like he was barely holding back laughter, which was both infuriating and kind of sexy. Duo liked his laugh too much.
They settled down with a normal amount of food, legs tangled together under the table, and after a couple minutes of silent eating while the food was still hot, Heero said, "So. Where do we go from here?"
Duo swallowed his mouthful—it was basically the same food as what he'd had in Zurich, which was unsurprising—and said, "Back to the house, I guess? Did you want to do something else after dinner?"
"I mean longer term."
"Ah," said Duo, who'd been trying not to think about that. "Well. I dunno. What do you want to do? The world's your oyster, now."
"I don't know what I want to do," said Heero, which was fair enough because Duo didn't know, either. "But I want you there while I'm figuring it out." He paused. "And after that, too, if possible."
It was a relief to hear that, except that it also made Duo unaccountably more nervous. "Are you, like," he put down his burger to fidget with a napkin, "asking to move in together, or something?"
"We've already been living together for months," said Heero.
"Yeah, but not like…" Sharing a bedroom? Eating meals together? Being the last person they each saw every night and the first person every morning? "…Not just the two of us," he finished lamely.
"No," agreed Heero, who was now leaning his face on his hand and watching Duo fondly. "I'm looking forward to that part."
"But like, paying bills? Worrying about money? Going to the grocery store and cleaning the bathroom ourselves instead of having a cleaning staff? That shit can be… stressful."
"I don't have experience with any of that stuff. Is it more stressful than fighting a secret war all on our own against an army that massively overpowers us?"
"No," Duo admitted, although he would have liked to lie and say it was.
"I have money," Heero said then.
"You do?"
Heero grinned. "I stole it."
Duo gave in, all at once, on the spot, and leaned his own cheek against his fist as he smiled back over their half-finished McDonald's dinner and asked, "Are you gonna keep me in the manner I'm accustomed to? Support me?"
"How am I doing so far?"
"B-minus."
Heero kicked him in the shin without moving otherwise. Duo cracked up laughing even as he leaned down to rub the soreness out of his shin.
"Well?" Heero said then.
Duo picked up his drink. "I'll cut a set of keys for you," he said around the straw. "Hope you like New York in the fall."
"I'm sure I'll love it," said Heero. Duo wasn't sure that either of them were talking about New York.
He didn't know what was going to be next for him—for either of them. They had a lot of life ahead, and some very unique skills.
He felt pretty good about their odds, though. They'd done more with less.
THE END
Q: Why did you finish this now?
A: This was the first fic I ever abandoned and I felt real bad about it. Also I guess I'm nuts, idk.
Q: X thing went unresolved, why?
A: I lost my story notes somewhere along the way. I did chapters 57-65 from scratch. You get what you get.
Q: You said at one point in the old author notes that you were gonna kill one of the gundam pilots, but I can't help but notice none of them are dead.
A: Yeah. It was Quatre! But then I got old, so now they're all alive. I just pretended to kill several of them in sequence, instead. Much more fun that way.
Q: If you came back and finished this, does that mean you're also gonna finish-
A: No.