It was the lack of sound that warned him. The intruders would have noticed him entering the ship, and he should have been hearing shouted commands and running feet. Narrowing his eyes, Duo levelled the Beretta at chest height and spun out of the airlock corridor just as a shot echoed through the metal-framed interior of the shuttle. His finger tightened on the trigger; he had time to be grateful that he had installed shielding around all the necessary engine components and bulkheads before the bullet hit.
The gun bucked in his hand even as he felt the slick caress of metal slipping past the skin of his forearm, tearing open the toughened fabric of his suit with a hiss of escaping air. Duo winced away to the side, hearing the ricochet of lead on steel as his own shot went wide; he'd had no time to aim.
Gritting his teeth against the sting of the graze on his arm, Duo centred his vision and brought the gun to bear again, this time heart-true.
He never fired it. The figure that filled his gaze was heartbreakingly familiar, even silhouetted against the hold lights. Duo blinked in disbelief, the weapon in his right hand falling unheeded to his side.
Stunned silence filled the narrow shuttle corridor, wrapping cold fingers around Duo's chest and squeezing painfully. If he'd been a little quicker, if he'd put the pieces together� he should have known that only Heero would be able to get through his codes! If his aim had been better he might have�
"Duo�" Heero broke the terrible silence in a hoarse, terrified voice, and suddenly Duo was absolutely, unreasoningly furious.
"Damn it!" He flung the Beretta aside uncaringly, stomping up the gangway and hitting Heero violently on the shoulder. "What the fuck d'you think you're playing at, Yuy?" he demanded in a spitting rage. I could have killed you! I could have� "Stealing my fucking ship, you damn stupid son of a�" This wasn't the reunion he'd envisioned, not by a long shot.
Duo had his hands in the air and was snarling into his partner's face. Heero hardly seemed to notice; his face showed the fear that Duo could not and his eyes tracked Duo's wild gesticulations, fixed on the bloody-edged tear in the spacesuit.
"Duo�" Heero whispered his name again in a voice filled with self-loathing, agonised eyes locking with his partner's. Duo frowned, automatically repressing a flash of concern along with the desire to fling his arms around his� Oh, shit�
"I could have� I almost�" Heero seemed completely lost for words; he lifted one shaking hand, trembling fingers running along the ragged edges of the bullet hole. They came away bloody. "Oh shit, Duo�"
And abruptly Duo found himself clutched tight in his partner's arms having the hell kissed out of him.
It was different. That seemed to be all his confused brain could come up with. It was different. Neither of them were fifteen years old any more; Heero's lips on his had far more to do with desperation and fear than they did with lust. And yet�
It was over before Duo could even manage to get a grip on his wildly fluctuating emotions. His heart pounded in his chest as Heero backed away from him, absolute terror and shame in lowered eyes.
"I'm sorry � I � I�" he stammered, looking anywhere but at Duo. His hair swept messy shadows across darkened eyes, and Duo suddenly decided the hell with it.
"Screw this," he muttered, advancing firmly on Heero despite the bulky spacesuit. The Japanese Agent's back had hit the opposite wall; he looked at Duo as though facing his own death again. He didn't even resist as Duo took hold of his shoulders, pushing him firmly back against the plasticised wall and gluing their lips together.
This kiss was definitely better than the last, Duo decided. This time Heero was the one frozen in startled immobility, and that meant he wasn't trying to get away. Duo's eyes slid shut and he tilted his head and parted his lips, desperate to taste. Heero's mouth seemed to come alive beneath his as his tongue swiped a wet trail along his partner's bottom lip; a moan vibrated through his throat and his hands came up to clutch at Duo's shoulders, tugging the shorter man tightly against him.
Duo hissed and quivered as Heero's tongue met his, hot and wet and demanding, and he crowded closer, hands sliding up around Heero's neck, pulling his head down for easier access. Heero's arms were around him, fingers wound tight in his braid, tipping his head back into the kiss. Duo groaned as the other's tongue licked gently at the corners of his lips, the roof of his mouth, explored him thoroughly enough to leave his senses reeling. He repaid the favour in kind, sucking and nipping with his teeth, forgetting everything in his desperation to devour Heero, to get as much as he could� his knee had found its way between Heero's, the bulk of the suit a barely-noticed irritant, and oh God the taste of him, the feel of tangled dark hair between his fingers, the heat of gasping breath on his face�
The blare of the proximity alarms brought him back to reality with an unpleasant jolt, just before a massive concussion shook the small craft, wrenching him painfully away from Heero.
"Shit!" Duo steadied himself against the opposite bulkhead automatically, gripping the handrail tightly. Heero was braced against the corner, and for an agonisingly long instant Duo couldn't bring himself to look away from the hazy, shocked blue of his eyes.
The moment was shattered into splinters as another alarm joined the first; Duo muttered a curse and kicked off from the floor, pelting towards the cockpit at top speed. He didn't need to feel the vibrations in the decking to know that Heero was right behind him.
"Heero!" Someone was screaming, and Duo remembered Mariemaia with a start. The pair of them barrelled into the cockpit almost simultaneously, Duo flinging himself into the pilot's seat and giving all his attention to the consoles. Dimly, behind him, he could hear Heero talking to Mariemaia, getting her settled into one of the cockpit jumpseats. He deliberately blocked the voices out, bringing the scanners online and absorbing every tiny piece of information the Inferno could give him.
What he saw made his stomach jump into his throat. Two small spacecraft were closing fast on the Inferno from port and below, angling on a direct intercept course from D4993. Even as Duo switched the primary screens to that side and set the others to threat detection the lead shuttle fired again, two concussion mines exploding scant metres from the Inferno's hull. The ship rocked under the onslaught and Duo had to choke back a mouthful of swearwords.
"Heero, strap her in and get over here!" he yelled over the sound of warning sirens, switching off the autopilot and closing his fingers around the control grips. "I need you to co-pilot!" Automatically his eyes went to the power console, checking output and secondary fuel levels. He changed course just minutely enough to avoid the third salvo from the fast-approaching ships; the concussion wave still rocked the shuttle, flinging him against his harness.
"Heero!" he shouted again, delegating life-support and engine subroutines to the secondary flight consoles just as his partner yanked himself forward, buckling quickly into the second chair.
"What do you need?" Heero's voice was brisk; there was nothing in his tone that even hinted of their strange interlude in the corridor. Duo gritted his teeth and resolutely pushed the memories aside; this was the way it had to be for now, but no way was Heero getting away from him again. Not now.
"Power up the primary verniers for me," he ground out, taking evasive action again as the second shuttle slid into position on their tail, firing its own front guns. "Shit!" All this evasive action was costing them speed, and now the pursuit evidently felt safe enough to use real weapons. "Who the fuck has beam cannons in this century, for fuck's sake?" he muttered to himself, making an abrupt decision.
"Heero, switch off the gravgens and route all available power to the verniers," Duo ordered, evading another energy beam.
"Accepted." Heero's fingers danced effortlessly over the control panels, and Duo felt the abrupt easing of pressure that signified weightlessness. "Verniers are ready to fire," his partner reported calmly, and Duo grinned maniacally, fingers hovering over the transfer key.
"Route 'em back to me on my mark," he ordered, rolling the shuttle out of the path of an energy beam with a flick of his wrist. "Three, two, one, mark!" Heero executed the order perfectly and Duo's finger stabbed down on the firing key, immediately feeling the hum of the engines increasing in pitch and intensity.
"Ha!" Duo crowed, punching the air as the Inferno began picking up speed, widening the gap between them and the pursuit.
"They're not going to leave the trail," Heero warned soberly, adjusting something on one of his panels. "We're too obviously headed for L4; they'll have notified their forces there already."
"Forces?" The breath hissed between Duo's teeth as he dodged another salvo from the cannons. "Just how fucking big is this thing, Yuy?!" The shuttles were still hot on his tail despite the increasing distance between them. They were obviously running their engines at max, and even with liquid-fuel rockets they'd have power enough to trail the Inferno to her destination.
This faceless them was really beginning to bother him.
"Big." Heero flicked through a couple of screens, shutting off all unnecessary power drains so that more energy could be routed to the engines. Duo had to admire the surety of his hands, despite the fact that this was the first time Heero'd been aboard his ship. How does he always manage to know exactly what he's doing? "Gearing up for a coup attempt, I think. Substantial Colonial presence, possibly with the connivance of one or several businesses."
"Huh." Duo checked the power levels and gave the verniers another boost, increasing their acceleration. "At least part of Ibsen is working for or with them." A cannon blast skimmed the Inferno's hull a little too close for comfort; apparently they were learning to anticipate his evasion tactics. "Damn, I wish I could shoot back," he muttered to himself, throwing the ship into a smooth roll to negative-y. Maybe if they could get to the L4 wreckage belt he'd be able to lose these assholes without having to give them an eyeful of the Inferno's secrets. "Une's agreed to us reforming G5," Duo added almost as an afterthought, watching the solar system tilting in the viewscreen.
"Why don't you?" Heero's voice cut through Duo's mumbled curses like a knife, leaving silence in its wake. Duo dared take his eyes off his screens for a moment, slanting a quick gaze at his partner. Heero had delved into the system, bringing up the defence console configurations. Duo stared, then swore as another cannon-shot grazed the gundanium skin of his baby.
"Shit, Yuy, are you insane? Une'd court-martial me! I can't even deploy the guns without direct permission from her!"
"But she let you build them into the ship," Heero argued.
"Well, yeah, but that was in case we had to do Preventer work! I need the authorisation, Heero, or my ass'll be toast." Duo shook his head and cranked another few kilowatts out of the generator, watching the gap open up a little more. The bastards were being damned stubborn about sticking on his tail; at this rate they'd use up all their fuel in the chase and end up halfway to Mars on sheer momentum, unable to turn back. It was a good thought, but unfortunately for Duo the Inferno was right in their way.
"I'm technically your superior," Heero pointed out quietly, fingers still hovering over the board. "I could authorise you to use force."
Duo snorted. "No way, Heero. Not unless there's no other option. They can't do us any damage, so we run like hell."
"And hide?" Heero's hand reached out, covering his own for a fraction of a second before moving to adjust a readout.
"Yeah." Duo exhaled on a long breath; the contact had been beyond electric. Damn it, I need to concentrate! "We're comin' up on the wreckage belt; I can lose 'em in there."
"Are you sure?" Duo risked another sideways glance; Heero was frowning at him worriedly, biting his lip.
"Yeah. This baby's got more 'n one trick up her sleeve," Duo reassured him with a grin, one hand flickering out to bring up a new screen on Heero's console. "I'd use them now, but I'd rather the bastards didn't wise up to us so soon."
"Accepted." Heero didn't seem surprised at all. Duo rolled his eyes at the phrasing and checked the distance between themselves and the pursuit again. The encroaching shuttles were no longer visible without magnification, but still a definite presence on the threat screens. They'd stopped firing, presumably because the L4 cluster was coming into view up ahead. Duo could just make out the bright scatter of sunlight reflecting off the drifting scrap of the wreckage belt.
Most of the Colonies had them. Made up at first of damaged and abandoned ships, containers and suits from the war years, salvage had gradually whittled the orbiting detritus down until most of what was left was either useless or too costly even to incinerate. There was no danger of collisions causing major damage, either; all of the large scrap had been towed away during the first few months of peace. Howard had made a great deal of profit on most of it, Duo thought in amusement. Some of the scrap belts were simply small clumps and clusters orbiting the Lagrange points along with the space colonies; other were truly impressive. L2 was encircled with a hazy cloud of space trash that was almost like a miniature Oort cloud all its own, only a few space lanes being kept clear amongst the junk to allow travel and commerce.
The most fortunate aspect of the wreckage belts, though, was that the clouds of rock and metal dust scrambled long-range sensors. That was about to come in very useful, if only Duo could get to the damn thing in time!
At least they weren't shooting.
"Hey kid," Duo called back over his shoulder to the silent form of Mariemaia, huddled in her spacesuit and harness at the back of the cockpit. "You okay back there?"
"Fine," the girl replied in a very small and wobbly voice that cast a certain amount of doubt across the statement.
"Okay." Duo turned his head just long enough to flash her a bracing grin. "We're just coming up on the wreckage belt; we'll lose our tails in there, okay?"
"Sure." Marie nodded a little and shifted in the jumpseat as if uncomfortable. If the situation had been a little less dire, Duo would have let her go and sit in the cabin, but right now it was best to have the kid where he could keep an eye on her. And protect her, if it became necessary.
"Right, here we go." Duo eyed the rapidly approaching clouds of grit and shrapnel dubiously. There was always the slight danger that a piece of the junk might find its way where it shouldn't be, but the gundanium of the hull would prevent any actual damage. He hoped.
The com and radar screens fizzed and crackled as Duo slowed the Inferno, manoeuvring her between two shuttle-sized lumps of twisted scrap metal and into the heart of the dust-belt. "Heero, ready on the hyper jammers at my signal," he ordered absently, most of his concentration going into avoiding the few large obstacles concealed within the dust clouds, a tricky proposition with only visual and EMC readings to work from.
"We're out of visual range," Heero reminded him quietly, one hand hovering over the controls.
"Yeah, I know, but I wanna get her behind one of these�" Duo twisted the yoke, dipping the Inferno suddenly behind a drifting lump of rock that had once been part of a resource satellite. "There we go." He matched speeds with the miniature asteroid, killing most of the ship's forward momentum. "Go to stealth, Heero."
"Done." Heero's fingers flickered over the keys and Duo relaxed, slumping bonelessly into the pilot's chair as the familiar itch began behind his ears. In many ways the Inferno was similar to Deathscythe; Duo had designed the ship with his Gundam in mind, and while it bore nothing close to the offensive capability of the Mobile Suit, it was at the forefront of design as far as defence was concerned. He'd added the hyper jammers to the gundanium hull and vernier technology; in a way it was G's legacy to him and he hadn't wanted to let the knowledge fade uselessly away. Une had made him agree to use the Inferno for Preventer purposes in an emergency, though.
Well, I'd say this probably counts.
"Okay." Duo checked the screens once again, then engaged the autopilot and released the control grips, flexing stiff fingers. "Let's give 'em a while to work out we're not here, yeah?"
"Good idea." Heero nodded, leaning back in his chair with a soft clink of harness. Duo took the opportunity to give him a quick once-over; the first really good look he'd actually gotten.
"Damn, Yuy, you look like hell." Duo shook his head, furious all over again at the people who had put those bruises beneath his partner's eyes, not to mention the dark-purple bruise at his temple. And that green jacket-thing is vile� "So what exactly happened to you guys?" he asked, mostly to give himself time to get his head in gear. Heero's eyes were far too intensely compelling�
"We got abducted," Heero noted in a dry tone; Duo heard a startled giggle from the back of the cockpit and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I kinda gathered that, thanks. I was after the details�"
Heero shrugged. "I was attacked by five men on my way back to my apartment on Friday evening. They knocked me out and drugged me; the next clear memory I have is yesterday morning. They kept us three floors below surface in a large structure. I could show you its location on a plan of D4993 but�" He shook his head, plainly frustrated.
"Well, it's worth something." Duo frowned. "We can deal with that when we get back to Q's, yeah? Easier with everyone else there." He watched Heero's eyes narrow infinitesimally before his partner nodded.
"All right. I don't have anything vital on them, anyway."
"Well." Duo groaned, lifting his arms above his head to stretch and then wincing as the movement pulled on the gash in his forearm. "Damn," he grumbled, lowering the arm and examining the wound through the tear in the suit. That's another one for the scrap heap. "Didja have to shoot me?" he complained, poking at the red crease the bullet had left in his flesh. Over three inches long, and bleeding again where he'd cracked the scabs; little beads of blood trembled with his movement, spreading and merging slowly.
"I'm sorry�" Duo looked up at that; Heero was biting his lip and refusing to look at him. "If I'd known� I'd never�"
"Nah." Duo glanced back at Mariemaia, but she seemed absorbed with the fixtures of her own suit. "It's not that bad, Heero. Just� help me get outta this thing, OK?" He plucked at the suit distastefully with his good arm. "Not much use now." He unbuckled the restraints and pushed off from the chair, gloved hands clumsy on the intricate vacuum seals. Heero moved to assist him, undogging one fastener at a time until Duo was free to squirm his way out of the suit.
It was something he � they � had done a thousand times, often in far worse conditions and with severe injuries. It should have felt utterly natural, but the slight brush of Heero's hands against his throat as he released the clamps there made Duo blush furiously; he turned his head away on the pretext of examining his injured arm.
That reminded him of something�
"Oh!" Duo turned, braid twirling around him in a slow-motion dance; he had to catch hold of the pilot's seat to halt the spin. "Heero, I brought your laptop along; it's still in the airlock�"
His partner's eyes were riveted to the blood pooling along the narrow graze. "Are you sure that's all right? Where's the medkit?"
"I'm fine," Duo insisted stubbornly, flexing the arm in demonstration. It stung a little, but that was all. I've definitely had worse� "Medkit's in the main cabin, if you really have to."
Heero frowned at his levity, but pushed off the deck anyway, propelling himself gracefully back out of the cockpit. Duo watched his retreating form, suppressing a sigh. God only knew what was going on with Heero; that kiss had been� He shook his head, dismissing the impractical thoughts and concentrating on his boards again. The two shuttles didn't appear to have moved from their former positions; they were probably having an urgent conversation about what the hell to do next.
For that matter, Duo himself wasn't all that sure. Hyper jammers were all very well, but the Inferno would have to uncloak to dock. If the goons stuck around they'd be able to follow Duo right into the colony. What they really needed, he mused, was a distraction of some kind, but hell if he could think of anything. He busied himself in licking the blood from his arm before it dispersed into free-fall. Cleaning up liquid messes in space was a bitch.
"Here." Heero was back, laptop case in one arm and the large medical box in the other. Securing the one beneath the console, he opened the other and began rifling through it, little white packages of antiseptic and dressings stirred into a weightless dance by his fingers. "Do you think it needs stitching?" he asked almost� anxiously? Damn, he must really feel guilty about this. Duo suppressed a grin; he himself was less concerned about the gunshot than he was about the whole attempted theft issue. He promised himself that Heero was going to pay for every dent and blemish in the black gundanium hull � later.
"Don't be stupid." He prodded at the wound in demonstration. "Barely a graze, Yuy. Wrap it and have done."
"Hn." Amazing how his partner fell back on meaningless monosyllables whenever he was disconcerted. Duo felt his mouth curling upwards involuntarily; Heero could be so weirdly sweet sometimes�
Sweet or not, he was a brisk and efficient field surgeon. He had the bullet crease cleaned and bandaged with the minimum of fuss, although he did bite his lip when Duo hissed a little as the antiseptic stung.
"There." Duo eyed the resultant dressing with approval. "Now, how are we gonna get out of here?" He indicated their two fuzzy shadows on the viewscreen.
Heero eyed them for a moment, then turned to him with a resolute expression. "We are not. I will take an escape pod and distract them so that you will be free to escape with Marie."
Duo froze. "You what? Heero, are you insane? They'll shoot you down!" He clutched at the arms of the chair, feeling the synthetic leather covering giving beneath his fingers.
"Not within sight of half of L4." Heero sounded so certain that Duo felt his heart clench in his chest.
"But they'll follow you," he argued stubbornly � there was no way he was leaving Heero behind, not now. Not now that he knew. Not after� whatever it was that had happened between them.
"Yes � and you'll be ignored." Heero sounded just as stubborn as Duo felt; a glance at his eyes showed steely blue. He obviously had no intention of backing down from his plan. "The pods have enough fuel and manoeuvrability to get to one of the W quadrant stations; I can get a transport shuttle back from there."
Duo hated to admit it, but Heero's plan was probably the best idea either of them were going to come up with. So what if the mere idea of it made his guts clench in fear? The benefits outweighed the risks � but he was damned if he'd let Heero be the one to trust his life to so fragile a contrivance. "No way. You're the one who was kidnapped � you take Marie back to Q's and I'll play the lifeboat trick."
"No!" Duo blinked; even Heero seemed a little startled by his outburst. They stared at each other for a moment, indigo meeting deep cloudy blue. "You're injured," Heero argued when the silence had become oppressive. "You know the ship better � the stealth systems. You should pilot."
"But�" Duo began, then swallowed, staring helplessly at Heero. He's fucking right, damn him. He's � I � shit. He flexed his arm, watching the blood spots fade into view against the white background of the bandage. While the Inferno was very possibly the best shuttle in her class, escape pods were clumsy as all hell and their controls were anything but delicate. To actually manage a Colonial docking� Heero would need his strength.
"Damn," Duo whispered finally, staring helplessly up at his partner. At the man he loved, damn it, however hard he tried to push that uncomfortable fact from his mind.
"I have to go," Heero told him quietly. There was compassion in his voice, mingled with purpose and determination. Suddenly all the long hours of worrying and waiting caught up with Duo; he felt his knees wobble and was abruptly glad of the lack of gravity.
"I know." He stared into Heero's face as though it was the last time he was going to see it, refusing to admit to himself that it might be. If this had to happen, then Duo was fucked if Hero wasn't going to survive it. Heero could survive anything. Maybe that was blind faith, but Duo hadn't been disappointed yet. "Just� be careful. Please," he ended quietly, dropping his eyes miserably. "There are spare suits in the cabin � take one�" He trailed off, startled, as Heero's hands settled on his shoulders.
"Good luck," Heero told him gravely; Duo looked up in shock � why is he telling me that?! � and abruptly forgot to think as Heero's mouth descended on his.
The kiss was desperately brief, nothing more than a hard brush of lips, but Duo felt his knees trying to give way again regardless. Heero� God� He didn't even realise he was reaching out, but his fingers clutched at nothing but empty air; Heero was already moving away from him, angling towards the cockpit door.
"Goodbye�" Duo whispered, staring after him until the door slid slowly shut, his arm still hanging in the air.
A muffled giggle from one side startled him almost out of his wits; Duo whirled clumsily, braid flying, to see Mariemaia curled up in her seat with her eyes wide and her hand in front of her mouth. They stared at each other for a moment before Duo felt his lips quirk into the familiar expression.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he growled, pushing across the cabin to help her out of her safety harness. "Here, you can come and sit up front since I seem to have lost my co-pilot." The levity came so naturally that it almost frightened him; how could no one see that it was nothing more than a cover, a front? He was running and hiding again, the pattern of his life, and�
There was a beep from the console just as he was settling Mariemaia into the co-pilot's chair. Buckling himself into his own seat, Duo hesitated a moment before pressing the intercom button. "Yeah?"
"Ready to go." Heero's voice crackled through the speakers, thin and nasal-sounding. Duo suppressed a flinch.
"Roger that," he replied with as much calm as he could muster. "Detaching docking clamps� now." His finger stabbed down onto the button and he felt the jolt through the deck plating as the little pod disengaged from the Inferno. It was up to Heero now, he thought grimly. Damn, this would have been so much easier if he'd still been in denial.
"Right." Duo checked the shuttle's power levels out of sheer habit, firing up the verniers again and easing the Inferno away from her resting-place behind the miniature asteroid. Heero's pod was making good progress, he noted with the part of his mind that wasn't given over to navigating a course out of the treacherous wreckage belt. More encouragingly, the enemy shuttles had backed off and were holding position right on the edge of the L4 space lanes.
"Duo?" Mariemaia was fiddling with the over-large gloves of her suit as he applied delicate pressure to the boosters, manoeuvring his Inferno around a collection of slowly spinning metal scraps. They were only minutes from the edge of the belt, and a scant half-hour from L4-Y22135.
"Mm?" he answered absently, most of his attention on keeping the vernier output synchronised with the hyper jammers. Surely the kid could amuse herself for a few more minutes�?
"Heero likes you."
The statement had the force of a blow to the skull; Duo only narrowly missed colliding with a tangle of knotted and corroded wiring as he tried to control his reaction.
"What? Uh � I don't know about that, kiddo�"
"He does," the girl informed him serenely, sounding as though she'd just come from tea with Relena. "And you like him."
Duo bit his lip, worrying the flesh with his teeth as the Inferno finally exited the wreckage belt. Damn, this kid was really something. If� if she could tell� did that mean Heero really did�? He felt himself flush, remembering Heero's lips on his, Heero's tongue in his mouth� A memory hours rather than years old. Quite involuntarily Duo felt himself smiling as he wrapped his fingers around the control grips again.
"Yeah. I suppose I do."