Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 2 Reign ❯ Talk is Cheap ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four: Talk is Cheap

"I dunno, it's worth it." Wufei muttered to me as he studied a book, "I enjoy the series, and I can afford it with this job."

I took the thing from him, turning it over to read the back. Fifty dollars for a book seemed a bit extreme to me, even if it was hardcover and special edition. I had to imagine he was torn about it as well, seeing as he was actually debating with me.

"My only other issue is that I could get away with requesting a copy from the author," he added, scratching his forehead, "Or write a letter informing him how much I've enjoyed the series. He'd probably want to give me a copy of it…"

"You're not conceited at all…" I muttered with a smirk, "You gonna do it?"

He laughed at that, then shrugged, thinking, "I don't want to come off as conceited."

"So just praise the guy on his work and tell him you're excited it's come out in hardback, so you'll pick it up at your next convenience."

He smirked at me.

"Hell, they'd use your praise as a quote like this, probably," I'd opened the book and indicated the reviews from varied notables.

He laughed more, then fell very silent and very still.

"What?" I asked, following his gaze. His eyes were wide and there was a sort of vulnerability about him now. He was looking at a man who was standing across the store from us near an entrance. The guy was staring right back at him, wearing a black-leather jacket.

I narrowed my eyes.

"He's from Swathe," Wufei breathed, reaching out and grabbing my hand, "Duo…he's…"

He was scared.

Hearing that in his voice pissed me off. I threw the book I was holding at the guy and it slammed directly into his forehead, where he doubled over, cursing in Chinese. People were staring at me now, but I didn't give a shit. If Wufei was scared, someone was dying.

I moved around the shelf we were at and the guy stumbled toward the door, then out it, probably realizing he'd fucked up. He'd straightened by the time I was out the doors and he was starting to run.

It would not be that easy.

"Duo, no!"

I paused before letting my knives fly, turning to focus on Wufei again. He looked scared, but it wasn't the same type of fear as it had been.

"What are you doing?" he demanded of me, pulling my arm down so the knives were hidden from sight.

"You were scared." I replied, controlling my breathing and the seething rage in my mind, "People will not get away with that."

"Duo, you can't just go…" he started, gesturing after the man as he climbed into a car that had pulled up near him. It took off, the tires squealing.

"He got away!" I accused Wufei, "I can't even see his license plate from here!"

"What more do you need to know?" Wufei snapped at me, "He's from Swathe."

"Jun is still fucking with you?" I demanded in irritation.

His expression changed to guarded in an instant and he stopped meeting my eyes, "No."

"Don't lie to me!"

"Just let it lie!" he shouted back, shoving me away from him, "Just let it go!"

I stared after him as he turned and moved back into the bookstore, blinking in confusion as he bent and picked the book up that I'd thrown. I tucked my knives away, wondering why he was so angry that I'd gotten pissed. How was that fair? He could get mad at me for getting mad?

Wasn't that just a bit hypocritical?

-

Duo had a considerate look on his face as they moved into my apartment, though Wufei's expression was almost disarming. He was carrying a few bags, and seemed to be in a thoroughly good mood.

"I take it you enjoyed yourself?" Miguel asked him, sitting up to accept the kiss Wufei offered as Wufei sat next to him and tossed his bags on the floor.

"More or less." Wufei agreed, snuggling against his fiancé's side.

"His expression makes your commentary a bit dubious." I noted, studying Duo curiously.

Wufei waved that off, "We went all over the place. I hadn't realized he didn't know downtown. Anyway, we ended up eating at that hole-in-the wall joint…uh…" he thought a second, then shrugged, "It was nice."

"Well, until we saw someone from Swathe." Duo noted.

Wufei's expression crumbled as he turned to glare at Duo and I realized that Wufei's cheer had been forced completely.

"What?" Miguel demanded, sitting up slightly. He wasn't the only one. Trowa had sat forward and Quatre was nearly standing. Hilde was blinking at him, though Relena just had her eyes closed.

Wufei sighed, giving Duo an irritated look.

Duo returned it, raising his eyebrows as if to say `That's what you get.'

"What did they do?" Miguel demanded, grabbing Wufei's arm and shoving up his shirt. I myself was looking for bruises.

"They didn't do anything!" Wufei snapped, breaking away from the guy, "It was only one guy and he ended up taking off in a car that stopped for him."

"And chances are they were intending to take you with them." Miguel spat, standing.

"Whoa, wait a second," Duo muttered, stepping into the scene, "What?"

"The fuckers have tried to kidnap him twice!" Miguel raged, gesturing at the guy, "If he ever goes into the city without a full escort, they're all over him!"

Duo's expression completely disappeared as he looked back to Wufei.

"They've only tried to kill him once since you took off on us, but as soon as we moved over here they started trying to kidnap him! And then every now and then, Jun sends him gifts."

Wufei was near tears, and considering the way Duo was standing-how completely expressionless he was,

I could understand that. He reminded me of the thermal weapons on our Gundams, solid looking on the outside but made of pure energy.

Duo had changed in the past two years.

"Just stop," Wufei muttered.

Miguel gestured pointedly at the guy as he met Duo's eyes, then paced off, obviously making an effort to control his anger.

"I see." Duo said. His voice was completely pleasant as if hearing this news wasn't shocking in the slightest, "I'm gonna go check on Selena." he added, then disappeared out the door.

We stared after him in amazement.

"Don't tell him that shit, Miguel!" Wufei snapped at the guy, "He was about to kill that guy!"

"Good!" Miguel shouted, "Great! Finally someone who will act!" and he also stormed out of the room.

"About to kill him?" Relena asked quietly.

"He had his throwing knives out when I caught him." Wufei muttered, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Wufei, what happened?" I asked calmly. Any emotion right now would send Wufei the way of Miguel.

"We were in the book store," Wufei muttered, sitting on the couch without looking at any of us, "Last stop of the day. I'd known the guy was following us, but well…I was with Duo, you know?" that was appealed with a quick glance, to which I nodded, "But he came in to the book store and was watching me and Duo-mostly Duo. I couldn't help it, I froze."

"Understandably." I muttered as Trowa closed his eyes. I could tell his teeth were gritted.

"When Duo saw the guy, he threw a hardcopy book at him…smacked him in the face with it," that had a quick amused glance, "The guy started cursing and ran out of the shop. Duo was after him instantly, pulling out those damn knives he bought. I stopped him before he could throw them" Wufei was quickly draining of energy, "He got all pissed at me because he didn't catch the license plate, but I went and bought the book he'd thrown. Then we came home." Wufei shook his head, rising to his feet and starting to gather his bags, "It was nothing."

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Quatre asked calmly, "You'd like for this problem to go away because you're ignoring it."

Wufei had paused at the door to the royal suite, and didn't look like he'd answer.

"There's not to much we can do," Quatre added, just as calmly, "But Duo, on the other hand, can do much more. Jun was scared of him."

"That didn't stop Jun from taking a shot at me." Wufei noted.

"No, but it kept him in check on all other lines. You know as well as I do that when Jun realized Duo wasn't around anymore was when he tried to kidnap you."

Wufei started out the door.

"This isn't just going away, Wufei." Quatre called after him, "And I, for one, am happy that Duo knows about it."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him, realizing something in his tone that I'd missed before.

He met my eyes, smirking slightly, "He's going to check on Selena, correct?" Quatre rose slowly to his feet, "How much are you willing to bet that he's about to leave the palace as we speak?"

"What?" I demanded, breaking and running toward Duo's room.

Selena was standing in the middle of the living room with a slightly dazed expression.

"Where's Duo?" I snapped at her as I headed down the hall, looking into all the bedrooms.

"He said he'd be back," Selena muttered when I came back into the living area, "He said to tell you all that he had something to take care of and that he'd be back in the morning."

Quatre was smirking at me, his arms crossed over his chest. He shrugged at me when I met his eyes, "I think we need to hurry up and bring our little army up to speed…though I might add that it will be easier to take them all down when they're in the middle of a dynastic war."

"What the hell is going on here?" Selena demanded of us all, pouting slightly, "Why the hell did Mike just run off like that?"

"Because he's dealing with an old friend of Wufei's." Trowa muttered in explanation, "We've been having some problems with the guy since Michael disappeared on us."

Selena studied him a long moment, then nodded slowly, frowning at me, "He said for me to stay here…that's fine, right?"

I shrugged at her, "You could live here for all that I care." I replied, "Just try to keep a hand on…Michael for us."

-

It didn't take me long to get back to Deniel, and I spent some time driving around, looking at all our old haunts. Not much had really changed. The Burn still seemed to be the club of choice, as well as the handful of others we'd played at before. The lines of the syndicates didn't seem to have shifted at all. I knew that I couldn't avoid stopping by Jesse's, but I wanted to deal with Jun Martin first.

It irritated me endlessly that the leader of Swathe would not leave Wufei alone. It had been bad enough the time the guy had taken a shot at him, but all five of us had gone and decimated the security around his building. I'd attacked him several times over, verbally, and those attacks had kept him off our back. When Quatre had moved up, he'd given the guy quite a bit of hell with Jacob's help.

I missed that Jacob. The Jacob who told you what he was thinking with his eyes, the one who would consider any person he was talking to before coming to a conclusion on the matter. He'd been fun. The Jacob of now was slightly boring. He was…normal.

I slid out of my car, locking it easily and wondering what Heero had done with his. I also wondered why they hadn't just put out an all points bulletin to stop my car. It had quite a few miles on it now, and the interior was somewhat beat up. I patted the side fondly; the motor was in perfect working condition, however, which allowed me to play stunt-boy in an action-themed movie.

"Excuse me, Sir," the bouncer muttered as I moved into the Burn through the VIP entrance, "You can't just…"

"I can do whatever the fuck I want," I informed him coldly, slamming a hundred dollar bill onto his podium, "And you can mind your own fucking business. Is Jun here?"

He stared at me and after a long moment, recognition lit his features, "He is." he muttered.

"In his room?" I demanded.

"Yes."

"Thank you." I replied, starting down the old hallway. The carpeting seemed unchanged-not even worn.

"Hey, Cat?" the man called.

I paused, turning to look at him.

He studied me a long moment, then looked pointedly away.

I snorted, moving into the hallway. It had been a long time since I'd been called Cat by anyone but Ace. It had been forever since I'd been recognized as the Cheshire Cat.

I started up those old familiar stairs with a smirk.

In Wonderland, who else but the Cheshire Cat was fit to give lessons? And Jun really had some learning to do.

-

I stared at Duo in sheer disbelief as he smirked down at me, his gun pressed lightly to my temple.

"Holy shit." I muttered, not moving and not believing this was real. The last time I'd woken up in the middle of the night with a gun to my head was when Heero had decided that he needed to let me know he lived in my territory…and I hadn't seen my king in a year at least.

"Hello, Jesse." Duo purred, leaning down to nuzzle my ear, "How are you?"

"About to wet myself." I replied easily, not quite trusting him with that look in his eyes and that gun to my head.

He laughed, tossing the thing to the floor, "It's not loaded." he informed me, nibbling my ear lobe.

"What are you doing?" I demanded sitting completely still.

"Hm…I just had some fun," he explained, running his hands over my biceps, "Just looking for more…"

"If you mean to fuck me, I never thought you'd rape a friend."

He laughed evilly, sitting back to grin at me, "Hi." he said in a normal tone.

I stared at him for a long moment, then grinned at him, "Dear-lord, where have you been?"

"Everywhere but here." he muttered, smirking at me.

I pulled him into a hug before realizing that one, moments before he'd been trying to start making out with me; two, I wasn't wearing clothing under my blankets; and three, he was straddling my lap.

I sat back, coughing nervously, "Uh…"

He laughed more, sliding off of me and picking up his weapon, studying my eyes, "Wanna come stay with me at the palace?"

"What?" I asked blankly.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"I can't go into the palace, Duo!" I muttered in shock.

"Yes you can." I replied, "You don't want to kill Relena and my apartments are for my usage. I happen to have a visitor at the moment, but she probably won't hang out long."

"She?" I asked, frowning at him.

"Chick named Selena," he muttered dismissively, sitting at the foot of my bed and using one foot to hook my boxers and toss them at me, "You may want clothing on."

I smirked at him, "Oh, I dunno…"

"Good," he muttered, moving to crawl back onto me, "My sentiments exactly."

"Duo," I muttered.

He sighed contently, resting his head on my shoulder a moment, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing that." he muttered, sitting straight again and sliding back off me.

I flashed him a confused grin before pulling my boxers on and tossing the blankets back, standing slowly before stretching, "Did you kill Ace, then?"

-

Hilde didn't care that I was in Duo's suite alone with Selena. She didn't care that it was nearing dawn and she was in bed. She really trusted me.

I had no intentions of cheating on her, and the only reason my mind even moved onto the subject was because the way Miguel acted about Duo. None of us were stupid. We all knew that if Duo decided that he wanted Wufei, he'd have him in the amount of time it took him to say it. Wufei did love Miguel, but Duo had some kind of spell on him that no one could ever break.

"So he took another shot at Wufei once before we moved. We all retaliated. Things were tense and confusing for a while, because Duo was gone. We had no idea which way he'd gone, and we were expecting him back any day then. Relena still trusted him, too. She just knew he'd be back before the plans for her wedding went any further."

Selena nodded, she hadn't really said much to me since I'd shown up at the door to ask her if Duo may have called her to check in.

"When he didn't show up and didn't show up, Relena started to feel…betrayed, I guess. She got pissed at Heero when Heero named Duo best man and refused to pick one of us to substitute. Relena was only having Hilde as a maid," I added, wanting to mention that she'd planned on Kayla as well, but not wanting to bring up the topic. "Duo actually showed up the morning of the wedding."

"I hadn't known him long, then." Selena muttered, "And when he didn't follow Keith, I thought he'd given up."

I nodded, "We all thought he'd be back for good as well, but he took off on us after the reception. He gave a speech praising the newly married couple, and danced most of the night away. According to Wufei, he was telling Wufei that the next time they talked he'd tell him all about what was going on. Fei admitted that he thought Duo'd meant as soon as they got a quiet place to chat. In the end, we figure that Duo left anywhere between four that morning and six." I sighed, "He didn't even leave a note."

"When has Mike ever left notes?" Selena muttered sarcastically, straightening. She'd been leaning against the bar.

"He used to always." I replied, studying her, "When we were all still on base, we always knew where he was and when he intended to be back. Then he went with that nun up to the colonies and she broke him…does he ever preach at you?"

"Preach?" Selena snorted in obvious disbelief, "Michael? About…what? How to fuck right?"

I blinked at her, "God," I muttered, "The bible."

She actually laughed at that, "The only thing he ever says about anything religious is that god forgives all sin and the devil fucks us all."

I stared at her.

She laughed, thinking about that, "And with how many people he fucks…"

"Chicks, you mean." I noted casually, though I'd had the distinct feeling since he'd been back that this was not the case.

Again, she laughed at me, "Oh, no. Mike spreads himself a bit thin without mind to the gender beneath him."

I stared at her. I'd figured he'd been fucking with guys, but not that he "spread himself thin" as she'd put it. That had definite overtones of something Duo had never been.

"I'm serious," she added, "I don't think he's gone for more than three days without getting laid since he left you guys." she scratched her forehead with one long nail as she thought about it.

"He's had relationships?" I asked weakly, already knowing the truth of it.

"I can honestly tell you that I'm the only person he bothers to sleep with on a regular basis. You heard him this morning. He doesn't even call us friends."

I frowned at her, "Why do you deal with him?" I muttered, feeling bad for her, "I mean…he treats you like shit."

She shrugged, "It's an acquired taste, definitely." she smiled slightly, "The first time I had sex with Mike, I really couldn't stand him. I was just distracting him from Keith."

I grinned slightly, wondering what her relationship with Ace was to make her fuck another man for him, "Some distraction."

"He seemed to think so. He was scary the next time I saw him." she looked across the room, then smiled slightly, "But then…" she snorted slightly, "Then he killed for me."

"Killed for you?" I asked, startled.

"Yeah." she muttered with a sigh, "I was a personal guard for the leader of Tarnished in Newport. Keith came and asked for my help, so I went with him. I instantly broke my ties with Tarnished."

"I'm shocked you're not dead." I muttered, thinking over how strictly organized that syndicate seemed to be. It was one of the major ones we'd have to fight in our eradication.

"That's where Michael comes in." she explained, "After we'd had sex several more times-he's good, just to let you know, I was taking a shower and he hadn't taken off yet. I heard shots fired and when I came back into our hotel room, there were a few dead men and he was demanding of a man what he was doing there." her eyes went distant again, "It was one of the guards for tarnished that hated me. He told Mike that he was there to kill me for deserting. Mike informed him that he would let no woman die of syndicate bullshit and snapped his neck."

I wondered if my chills were from the fact that Duo seemed to have done that so calmly, or from the fact that she'd told me about it so calmly.

"He ran with me then, for probably a week. Then he ditched me and took off after Keith again."

"Wow." I breathed.

She laughed, "That was my thought. I thought he might have a thing for me at that point…but the next several times I saw him, that illusion was quickly vanquished."

"He has issues with syndicates." I muttered, picturing Kayla with her mischievous grin.

"I'd noticed." she muttered, "So if I was ever being tailed, I'd just go find him and he'd kill off my attackers. I was never quite sure if I should appreciate that or not."

I met her eyes, "You stayed alive."

"True." she sighed, shaking her head, "But I interrupted you. You were telling me about Swathe."

"Oh, yeah," I muttered, catching up on my own story, "It wasn't long after we'd all moved in here," I looked around the rooms, "Wufei had gone into the city by himself-and didn't come back."

She blinked at me.

"At least not for several hours longer than we liked. He was all bruised and upset, too. He told us that while he'd been out, some guys had come up behind him and knocked him out with chloroform." I closed my eyes a moment as I thought it over, "He woke up in a moving van surrounded by several guys with guns." I met her eyes, "He killed them all."

She nodded, not even fazed to hear about that.

Interesting.

"It was probably six months after that when he ventured alone into town again. He and Miguel'd had a fight, so he wanted some alone time. When he got there, another guy from Swathe shoved a gun against his head…I guess they started walking him down the alley like that, but he managed to kill most of them, too."

"What did Wufei do?" she breathed, studying me, "How did he get on this side of Swathe?"

"Jun fancied him." I replied promptly, "Tried to court him until Duo showed up from the colonies. He'd given Wufei VIP passes into the Burn-a club over in Deniel that's every bartender's paradise. He took Duo, but when they got there, Jun had set the bouncers to sending Wufei up to meet him. We're not completely sure what happened." I added, "Ended up with Jun pulling a gun on Wufei and Duo basically killing three guards and nearly Jun himself."

She nodded, "What do you mean, basically? Mike would wipe them out like trash."

"Ah, so you imagine." I muttered, "But we aren't talking about the same Duo here. Mine is pre-insanity."

That got me a grin.

"You gossip worse than ladies in waiting."

I froze at the sound of Duo's voice.

"You eavesdrop worse than children at Christmas." Selena replied, looking past me at the door and blinking.

"Why are you in my room?" Duo asked me, and I could hear him moving up behind me.

"Because I was trying to get him to fuck me." Selena replied in that same immature tone.

"Please, he's in love and engaged." Duo muttered dismissively, "He would rather die than lead you on."

I turned to meet Duo's eyes, then laughed, bouncing to my feet, "Jesse!"

Jesse started laughing, accepting my hug before looking around me at Selena again.

"He was waiting for you, jackass." Selena added darkly, "Keeping me company since I'm so worthless."

"Oh, you're not worthless," Duo muttered, his tone less than complimentary as he kicked his shoes off, "Not in the slightest." he laughed.

"Are you going to introduce me?" Jesse snapped, winking at me.

"Fine. This is Selena Raoul. Selena, this is Jesse Fallon."

Selena had been about to move forward to shake his hands, but at his name she froze.

"Yes, he is the leader of Jaded." Duo muttered, pulling off his shirt and tossing it toward the wall before meeting my eyes, "I suppose I have to go make the rounds again?"

"Quatre and I are fine with this, and Miguel will probably want to give you something, but Wufei and Heero are about ready to skin you alive."

He smirked at me, starting down the hall toward the bedrooms, "Sounds fun."

"You would think so, pervert." I called after him.

He laughed.

"You have no idea." Jesse muttered to me, meeting my eyes pointedly, "Do you realize he was trying to seduce me?"

"So you fucked him?" Selena asked curiously.

"No!" Jesse was instantly defensive.

She blinked, "But he's only like that after…"

"Jesse is a friend, Nira." Duo muttered before we could say anything to her, appearing again with a t-shirt on and some sandals, "You forget that I don't act the same with my friends as I did with you."

She rolled her eyes, "How foolish of me. Are you going to say anything to me?" she demanded.

He met her eyes, blinking, then looked between Jesse and I a moment and shrugged, "I think it's already been said."

And without a further glance backwards, Duo left to room.