Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of them.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence,past NCS.
Shinigami's Lover III
Sequel to Firewall
Obstacles
"Duo... " Heero stopped at the door to his old office and frowned.
"I'm not an agent any longer. I should get a desk in Records."
Duo smiled indulgently. He took hold of Heero's sleeve and tugged him along with him into the room as Soda padded silently beside them. Wu Fei stood up from a desk neatly stacked with computer equipment and his work. He looked nervous, but happy to see Heero.
"Yuy... Maxwell," he greeted. "Just like you to start your day off late."
Duo snorted and made a face at him as he tugged Heero to his desk. "Everyone agreed that this is where you belong, baby, right Wu-man?"
"Maxwell!" Wu Fei growled, hating the nickname, but then took a tight rein to his temper and nodded firmly. "He's right, Heero, Po gave her permission for you to remain here."
Duo chuckled. "Wu Fei hasn't found another partner who can stand him, so he's been lonely."
Wu Fei glared and then grunted and replied surprisingly, "Well, you are right about one thing, it has been too damned quiet. Now, Yuy, if you will sit down and get to work, maybe Duo will see fit to return to HIS job and let me do my work."
Heero smiled. He sat in his chair and it creaked as he turned and surveyed the wall behind his desk, the one full of photos of himself, Duo, Soda, and the puppies. There were a few of the other ex-pilots, framed medals, and a proudly displayed photo of himself and Wu Fei graduating together from Preventer training. Heero reached up and touched that one, looked thoughtful, and then turned back around to Duo.
"You gave me my orders, Agent Maxwell," Heero said briskly, but his eyes were dancing with love and excitement. "I'll take it from here."
Duo grinned at him and then leaned down and gave him a brief kiss. When he broke it, he said, "I expect a report by noon, Mr. Yuy."
"Yes, sir," Heero replied briskly.
Wu Fei made a long suffering noise.
"All right!" Duo exclaimed, exasperated. That tone of voice brought out Wu Fei's dog from behind his desk. The white German shepherd was alert and ready to defend his master. Still gangly with puppy hood, he still managed to look threatening. When he saw Soda, tails began wagging and they touched noses.
Wu Fei sighed. "You are supposed to wait for my order to relax, hound!" The dog looked back at him and wagged his tail happily.
"He knows his friends," Duo laughed. "He's a smart dog."
There was a chew spot on the edge of Wu Fei's desk. Duo reached out and touched it. Wu Fei looked suddenly uncomfortable.
"Po is going to have a cow and throw us all out on the street if our dogs can't stop teething and taking out their frustrations on the furniture," Duo said ruefully.
"She did suggest building a kennel," Wu Fei replied disapprovingly. "I don't see how our dogs can be effective if they spend their time in cages outside instead of with us."
"I can," Heero muttered and he suddenly had two sets of disapproving eyes looking at him. Heero said defensively, "Well, it does make sense. Having them inside here all day can't be good for them."
"And that's where we part ways," Duo replied with a shake of his head. "You see useful animals and me and Wu Fei see friends and fellow agents. You don't put friends or fellow agents in cages when they aren't working on cases."
Wu Fei eyed Duo as if he wasn't completely in agreement with Duo's sentiment, or didn't want anyone to know that he was, but then he reluctantly nodded.
"You two are hopeless!" Heero sighed and then smiled at Duo again. "All right, boss. I need to get started if I'm going to have something by noon."
"We'll have lunch and go over whatever you have," Duo told him.
"Yes, sir," Heero responded and then smirked. "Is that a job perk?"
Duo laughed as he led Soda out of the office, saying over his shoulder, "Damn right it is!"
Duo was still smiling when he went into his own office and Kit looked up from her work and smiled too. "Well, you're happy, so your S.O. must be happy."
Duo sat down at his desk, almost in a daze. "S.O.?"
"Significant other," Kit replied warmly and then snickered. "You
aren't going to be like that ALL day are you?"
Duo shook himself and then said, "No, it's just... It's kind of overwhelming when you see something like that, when you see someone get back to where he absolutely belongs. It's almost manifest destiny, Heero's place in the Preventers. I never realized how bad he'd gotten until I saw him all right again."
Kit arched an eyebrow. "Some people are their work, I guess."
Duo frowned suddenly.
Kit sighed in exasperation. "Okay, smile gone, and now you look bothered. What the hell happened?"
Duo looked pained. "I like it here. I like doing this kind of work, but, it's not who I am."
"Me either," Kit admitted. "I want to do this more than any other job on Earth or in Space, but I'd much rather be puttering around a mountain retreat and searching out a new fishing hole."
Duo blinked at her. "Fishing hole?"
Kit snorted. "I fish, Duo Maxwell. Nothing wrong with that."
"No," Duo replied, beginning to grin again. "I just never thought of you as someone to do something like that."
"Have you ever fished?" Kit wondered. When Duo shook his head, she took up a pen, flipped through the pages of her desk calendar, and then randomly made a circle. "I will take you and your lover boy on a fishing trip on that date."
Duo looked amused. "That's Christmas. It would be awfully cold."
Kit made a face and made another random dot several months further into the calendar. "There! It's a date."
"It's a date," Duo agreed, "But I'm not cleaning anything."
"That's a man's job, gutting the fish," Kit told him as if he were stupid. "Men gut and clean. Women cook and serve."
"While we're reverting back to the stone age," Duo retorted, "Why don't you tell me how women don't fish, stay home, and not be Preventer agents?"
Kit glared and then chuckled. "Okay, I'll HELP clean and gut. You have to do your fair share, though, or no trip."
"I don't remember asking to go fishing," Duo grumbled, but then relented. "Okay, deal."
"Great!" Kit beamed. "I'll make sure to tell Agent Grange."
Duo started. "Grange?"
Kit smirked at him as she punched keys on her computer and brought up a file. "He is my S.O., after all."
Duo turned sour. "Since when?"
"Since a few weeks ago, oh, Mr. Not-Observant." Kit scrolled down the page of her file and then made a note on a notepad. "Don't worry, now that he knows you aren't out to steal me from him, he'll be much... well, a bit nicer to you. He still thinks you get way too many special dispensations. I'll make sure he doesn't cut your braid off in the middle of the night or anything, okay?"
Duo touched his braid nervously and said sourly, "Sounds like a fun trip already."
"It will be," Kit assured him and then stood up and grabbed her notes and car keys. "Ready to go to work, Agent Maxwell, or do you want to sit around here and sigh happily over your S.O. some more?"
Duo scowled, but then laughed, "Okay, okay! Let's go. I'll try to keep
happy sighing to a minimum.
________________
The day turned out to be long and tedious. They gathered their information and
staked out their witness. After a long day of no activity and watching street
life in the slums pass them by for hours on end, Duo called it a day and anxiously
drove back to headquarters. With nothing to do, but sit and wonder how Heero's
day had gone, he was well prepared to find his lover sitting at his desk and
staring despondently off into space. Wu Fei was sitting at his own desk and
looked relieved to see them.
"I'll put in our report," Kit said and wisely left.
"Well, i can see by your face that something went wrong," Duo sighed as he pulled up a chair and sat down. Soda settled at his feet and Wu Fei's dog came nosing towards him.
"Dragon," Wu Fei admonished and the dog gave him pleading, liquid eyes.
Duo snorted, "Are you STILL changing his name? You should have just kept 'Bob'."
Wu Fei frowned. "He answers mostly to 'hound', but I haven't found his soul's name yet."
Duo looked skeptical. "If you say so." He turned his attention back to Heero. The man was shuffling papers and turning off his computer for the day. "Okay, baby, spit it out. What happened?"
Heero looked reluctant. Exasperated, Wu Fei finally supplied the answer. "He forgot where Records was. He hasn't recovered from that all day long. I told him it was a small thing, not to remember that, because he usually sent an aid there when he was an agent. He refuses to listen, though. Please, take him home, Maxwell, and get my stubborn partner to understand that seeking perfection, when no one is perfect, is foolish."
Heero had started at the word 'partner'. He blinked at Wu Fei as if overcome by a strong emotion, but then he hid it and said softly, "I was given a very simple job and..."
"Did you finish it?" Duo cut in. "Let me see it." Heero handed over a file nervously. Duo sat back in his chair, opened the file up in his lap, and then flipped through pages quietly. He looked up and closed it after several long minutes. "You need to make clearer notes so that I can read them, " he said, "but this is excellent work, Heero." When Heero looked doubtful, Duo scowled and snapped, "This isn't about you and me and your problems, Yuy! This is about people's lives and keeping the streets safe. I'm not going to lie to you about your job performance when so much rides on you doing it right, got that?"
Heero swallowed hard and nodded.
Duo softened as he stood up. "Now, my love, let's get out of here and leave all of this behind us. I think you need to do some serious unwinding."
Wu Fei snorted and stood up as well. "Please, take him away. I have some work to finish up and I would like to do it without Yuy sitting and being endlessly critical of himself."
Their secretary suddenly tapped on the door and then entered the room cautiously, mindful of dogs coming to the alert and a room full of infamous Gundam pilots. She almost squeaked as she handed Wu Fei some papers, saying, "The information you requested, Agent Chang."
"Good, thank you. " Wu Fei sighed as he settled back into his chair. "Looks like I'm going to be staying VERY late."
Heero tried to see what Wu Fei was holding as he stood up and prepared to leave, not able to help being curious. "Tough case?"
Wu Fei looked up and Duo could see that 'classified' was on his tongue, but
he took back that word and gently replied, "Those men from our last case
are going to trial. I asked for some information about the strategy of the prosecutor.
I wanted to make sure that he has a tight case and that there isn't more information
that I can give that would be helpful."
Wu Fei was spreading out the papers as he talked and Heero suddenly started.
Duo saw him go very white as he approached Wu Fei's desk and looked down at
a map. In a shaky voice, Heero asked, "This... this map.... I.... remember
it.... was it-" His eyes, as he spoke, were going over the lines and he
stopped talking and began to tremble.
"Heero?" Duo exclaimed in alarm and took Heero by the elbow, afraid that Heero was about to faint. "Wu Fei!" Duo ordered sharply, "Call a medic! Now!"
Wu Fei wasn't moving though, he was staring hard at Heero. "This is a reduced version of the map that was on the wall of the office we infiltrated, the office where you received your injury."
Heero reached out and picked up the map. His eyes poured over it closely and then he dropped it and grabbed the vid phone receiver. His fingers frantically punched in Sally Po's number.
Sally appeared on the vid screen, puzzled and holding an armload of things as if she had been caught on her way out of her office. "Heero?" She said and then frowned as she saw his agitated state. "Is something wrong?"
"Heero?" Duo tried again. "Maybe you should sit down? If you
aren't feeling well-"
Heero pulled sharply from Duo's grasp and leaned into the viewer of the vid
screen. "I remember now, who I was trying to call during that last mission.
I was trying to call you. I spotted a map there that showed a particular installation,
one that is top secret and NOT on any civilian map. It contains a weapons cache
and an explosives lab. You must send agents there at once. If the enemy has
already gone there and are utilizing the equipment, then there is the potential
for them to visit mass destruction on any target of their choosing."
Wu Fei had taken up the map, blinking at it. He went suddenly pale as well. "I don't know anything about this installation, Commander Po," he told her, "but the map clearly shows it."
"The original is in Records?" Po snapped instantly.
"Yes, ma'am," Wu Fei replied promptly.
"Yuy and Chang. Gear up and stand ready for my orders," Sally Po said
with the practiced command of a woman who had spent her life in the military.
"If you know about this installation, Yuy, I will need you to coordinate
agents."
"Yes, commander," Heero replied without question.
The vid screen went blank and Duo shook off his astonishment. "You can't!" he exclaimed and then got into Heero's face. "You can't do this, Heero! You're still recovering! How can she expect-"
Heero's look silenced him. "Doesn't matter," Heero said, already slipping into soldier mode. "I know I'm not fully recovered. I know my memory is not good, but even my bad memory is better than sending troops into that installation blind. I did it once during the war to hack their computer systems. I know what they are facing. If they go in without any information, it will be a slaughter if the enemy has already occupied the place."
Duo still wanted to argue, his anguish clear on his face, but then he settled his shoulders and backed down, knowing that Heero was right and that there wasn't any other way. "I'm going too," he said, "No matter what Po has to say about it. If they need an expert, you aren't going to be the one going in and I'm more of an expert at security systems and infiltration than Wu Fei."
Heero reached out and gently caressed Duo's braid. Duo could see Heero's tension and his excitement. Duo was sure that there was doubt and nervousness mixed up in there as well, but Heero wasn't going to show it to him. "What about your partner?" Heero asked.
Duo snorted. "In this kind of action, me, you, and Wu Fei are partners, Heero. Kit doesn't have an ounce of experience in military frontal assaults."
Heero smiled. "Like old times."
That didn't mean as much to Duo as it did to Heero and Duo replied sourly, "Let's hope it's not too much like old times. I don't want to think that we might have a full blown military battle on our hands."
Duo could see that the thought of that kind of mayhem was sobering to the two other men. Duo couldn't help making a small, silent, prayer that Heero wouldn't be called on to do anything other than direct some of the operation and then left to get Soda's flack jacket.