*Based on the song 'Animals', by Nickelback
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of them.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence.
Une flipped through reports as she paced around Duo's chair. She hummed, tisked, and sighed several times.
Duo, chin propped on his fist, glared at her impatiently. "If you're going to tell me that anything in there surprises you, then I'm going to tell you that you are full of shit."
Une snapped the folder closed and stood as if she were at attention, the report still in one manicured fist as she put both hands behind her.
"Duo Maxwell," she said, "it seems that no one believes in your sudden conversion to the right side of the law. Mr. Hutch believes that you are here to get at Heero Yuy. Your psychologist believes that you will never submit yourself to authority. Your physician, listed several ailments, all consistent with high stress piloting, and expressed concern that you receive an immediate nutritional regime. He doesn't believe that you are physically capable of handling Preventer physical training."
Duo shrugged and stood up."Then I'm a wash out. Guess I'll be on my way."
Une cocked an eyebrow and hit Duo in the chest with her file folder as he tried to pass her. "Mr. Maxwell. You still have a sentence to serve. While all recommendations point to a denial of your application, I am willing to allow you to prove them wrong... eventually. For now, you'll see your psychologist each day and follow doctor's orders."
"And you'll keep me locked up in my room until... when?" Duo wondered.
"You'll be allowed the exercise yard and the gym," Une replied."How long you'll be confined to those areas, depends on you... and your health."
Duo clenched his jaw and then glared at her sideways. "I want to see Heero. It's not about revenge... or sex... or any of that. We were friends. You can have guards standing by with pulse rifles, if you want."
"We allowed Yuy to send you one message," Une admitted and Duo felt his stomach tighten. "He told you his thoughts, his goals for the future. He wants you to make the same sort of plan.You would be wise to do so."
"I want to see him or no deal," Duo insisted. "You know I can get out of here."
Une crossed her arms over her chest and looked down her nose at him, eyeglasses glinting. "No more running, Duo," she told him, "because next time you're caught, it will be hard time."
"I'm not afraid," Duo retorted.
Une leaned close and said, "You should be. They'll make sure you won't escape. I will also remind you that you have enemies in and out of that kind of high security prison.Some of them are just as good as you are in foiling 'the system'. They might get to you. It could get very ugly."
Duo grinned, purple eyes glinting. "Who do you think you're talking to? I've beat guys like that my entire life. Go tell your scary stories to someone who gives a rat's ass."
Une tried to call his bluff, staring at him intently, but Duo only continued to grin back and rock, back and forth, on his heels, waiting.
"I would ask for your word,"Une finally said, "but I doubt that it means much to you."
"I do have honor,"Duo protested. He considered before he said, "Tell you what,you let me see Heero for five minutes, and I'll seriously consider not escaping, until I give your organization a try."
"You can't escape," Une insisted.
"Keep telling yourself that,"Duo snickered.
"Five minutes,"Une relented,"Behind bullet proof glass and with armed guards."
Duo fisted his hands, but then nodded tightly.
Une called her guards and they escorted Duo into a closet like room divided by the thick glass.He wondered what Une used it for. He wanted to ask the guards, or at least make a rather crude joke, but they didn't give him time.
"Five minutes," one of them repeated, and then stepped back, as a door on the other side of the partition opened and Heero Yuy stepped in.
Duo couldn't help the laugh. "Une knew she'd have to cave, all along!"
He couldn't waste time on triumph, though, and quickly moved forward, looking Heero hungrily up and down. He felt a keen satisfaction to see that Heero was doing the same. The man put one, blunt fingered, hand against the glass and leaned into the glass at the same time that Duo did. Resting their foreheads together, with only the glass between, an intercom sent their voices to each other, clear and without distortion.
"God!It's good to see you!" Duo moaned.
Heero's eyes were intense as his voice replied, just as passionately, "Seems like it's been forever!"
"What the hell is with the four year plan,Yuy?" Duo rushed on, knowing that the clock was running. "Do you know where I've been, what I've had to do, waiting for you? Now you tell me to keep on waiting."
"Sorry," Heero replied, fingers flexing on the glass as if he wanted to rip it out of their way. "There isn't any other way, not now, not if we want a life together, Duo. You have to understand that. In two years, they say we can work together, that we'll be free to see each other whenever we want, but... I want more than that. I want a future that's secure, that's built on-"
"I just want you!" Duo cut in viciously. "Screw your plan and cut it in half. You got two years, Yuy! I won't wait a second more past when I'm legal. Got that?! I won't give you any more!"
"Two years can change a man," Heero persisted. "You might come to understand me by then and want the same thing."
"I thought we did want the same thing!" Duo shouted back.
"I want you," Heero replied with all the emotion that he could manage. "Don't ever doubt that."
"You make it damned hard," Duo retorted. "You'd better make it worth it."
"I will, Duo," Heero promised. "I'll be everything to you."
"Time's up," a guard said nervously.
Duo slammed a fist against the partition in frustration and then he yanked open his shirt and plastered his entire body against it, the tattoo of Deathscythe distorting as he pressed. As Heero took in the new body art, and the vision of Duo's slim, muscled torso, Duo shouted, "This is what you're missing, in case you forgot making up your 'plan'."
Heero pressed himself against the glass as well and kissed the place over Duo's lips. "I know," he said, "but it isn't just about your body. I want all of you."
The guards pulled Duo off and then backed up, guns ready when he jerked his arms free and swore.
"See you in two years, Yuy!" Duo told him, and then once again as he turned to leave,"I'm still not waiting any longer than that!"
_________________________________________________________
"You have high marks," Une said as she paced slowly and read over Duo's scores.
Duo sat, arms crossed and slumped in his chair, and stared hard at nothing. She eyed him, raising one eyebrow, and then shook her head disapprovingly.
"You attitude has much to be desired, though," she continued. "Your instructors think that you aren't challenged enough... or that you're too lazy."
Duo gave her a glare. "Lazy gets you dead."
She smiled and nodded as she tossed the file onto her desk.
"Get to it," Duo insisted. "I'm not here for you to tell me what I already know."
"Physically, you're finally up to speed with the other cadets," Une replied. "You've proven very adept at everything that you are challenged with. Your piloting skills are a given, but you've shown a real talent for strategy."
"Again, I already know all of that," Duo retorted with a wave of his hand. "Get to the part where I get to be an agent."
"Or not," Une countered as she paced again. "There is still the matter of discipline. You are not very good at taking orders."
"I took orders from only one man," Duo replied angrily,"and he really didn't expect me to survive after I followed them. Where did following orders get you?"
Une pushed up her glasses and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she remained calm as she said, "The past is the past. This peace requires law, rules, regulations, and orders that are followed."
"I'm not going to be writing tickets for double parking, and you know it," Duo told her, "If you give me a mission, I'll do it."
"And if you have to work with others?" Une wondered.
"I've worked with other people before," Duo replied. "I know who's competent enough to follow in the field."
"I can't allow a loose cannon, like you,in the field," Une told him as she sat at her desk once more."Unless you can show some willingness to follow orders..."
"The shrink thought that I was a bi-polar schizophrenic," Duo snickered, "but then, he decided that I was actually trying to hide, from everyone ,the fact that I'm really just a murdering terrorist."
Une frowned and steepled her fingers. "He did not say that... did he?"
Duo gave it a moment and then snickered. "No. It was some sort of crap about feeling bad about the war and acting like an asshole out of defensiveness. I don't like other people judging me."
"Is it true?" Une wanted to know.
Duo rubbed a hand behind his neck, as he stood up, and shrugged. "He's the one with the degree.Me... I just think I'm really, really mad about how things are turning out. I thought I was a hero, you see?"
"I understand," Une replied.
Duo cocked his head at her. "Do you?"
"Yes," Une assured him. "But the world you saved has to work inside the law now, to keep the peace. It's unfortunate that it's heroes can't find their place inside that law."
It was Duo who closed his eyes in pain, then.
"Duo," Une said gently, "Let go of your anger or you won't have a future."
It was hard to bend. Everything within Duo fought it. Very slowly, though, he allowed reason to seep into his angry stubbornness. He could see his future, suddenly, if he kept that anger burning, and it was dark and caged in iron bars.
They owed him, that anger said. They had betrayed him instead of giving him what he had fought so hard for; his freedom. Now the price of that freedom was his willingness to forgive... to forget... and to let the system have its way.
"What do you want?" Une asked.
"To be an agent," Duo replied sadly, and knew it for the truth. "I'm tired of the streets. I'm tired of not counting."
The hand that held a badge out to him was unexpected. Duo blinked at it dumbly and then looked up at Une. "It's still the badge of a cadet in training,"Une told him as he slowly took it, "but at least you know that you're training for something."
The lights shone on the Preventer shield and Duo's name. He closed his fist on it and nodded.
TBC