Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ - 06 - ( Chapter 6 )

— 06 —

October 16, A.C. 204. Base. 12:30pm

Doug stopped on the threshold of Jordan's house when Chai had let him in, blinking at all five of the former pilots sitting around the living room.

"Come in, I made lunch," Chai noted happily, smiling at him. "Have a seat, and don't mind their uniforms, they're just back from a meeting."

Doug nodded at her in acceptance, moving more into the living room.

"What are you doing here?" Trowa asked curiously.

"I know of this sweet woman who gives you food when you show up on her doorstep," Doug grinned at him.

"Oh, whatever," Chai retorted happily from the kitchen. A moment later she appeared with a bowl of savory stew...which they were all eating. She passed it to the soldier, then gave him a look.

Doug grinned at her, moving around to sit next to his superior on the carpet. "What's going on?"

Really, he was irritated. He'd left the base the at four-thirty the previous day and headed straight for the Rest...only to find out he'd missed both Chance and Jordan by about ten minutes. By the time he'd gotten back for supper, he'd had to rush to the mess hall. Small things had cropped up for the rest of the evening until he'd had to go to bed.

When he finally caught exactly who he wanted to talk to, they had to be in Barton's company.

Quatre gave him a confused and curious look, though he wasn't letting the others see it.

"We had a meeting with an ambassador," Jordan explained happily. "Something about rebels and buy-ins...what part of land did we want, that sort of fun stuff."

They all turned to look at him.

Jordan laughed again.

"You're bad," Doug noted, grinning back.

"No, I'm good," Jordan retorted, his smile turning somewhat proud. "I'm damn good."

"And he's not talking about in bed," Chai noted.

The group died laughing at that as Jordan gave his wife a confused sort of demanding look.

Chai started giggling.

- -

October 16, A.C. 204. Base. 4pm

"Are you coming or what?" Trowa protested at Doug.

"I wanted to talk to him," Quatre protested, stepping up beside the man. "He'll be along in a bit."

"Quatre, I'm leaving in five minutes," Trowa protested.

"Okay, so he'll be there in two, come on," Quatre gave the guy a look.

Trowa sighed irritably, then climbed into his car.

"Come on," Quatre suggested, prodding the soldier back toward the house. "What was all that about?" he gestured at the area Doug had been sitting as Chance and Jordan gave him curious looks.

"Which?" Chai asked, moving from the kitchen and stopping. "Oh...what's up?"

Doug looked between the three men nervously, then shrugged uncomfortably.

Now that he had the opportunity, he didn't want to say. He knew they'd all instantly get on Trowa about it, and that would put him in even more stress. The soldier started fiddling with his keys and looked down, shaking his head.

"You were all sorts of irritated when you came in and saw us all sitting here," Quatre noted pointedly. "Then you've been anxious since Tro and Fei said they were taking off. You let me keep you behind when you want to go with Tro, so spill. Something's up. You didn't come here for the food; that much I can tell."

"It was good food?" Doug offered, meeting his eyes.

Quatre frowned at him.

"What's up?" Jor asked curiously. "Why are you all nervous now? What aren't you telling us?"

"That would be telling you," Doug noted, backing away. "Listen...Trowa will seriously leave without me, I've got to go."

"Let me drive you," Quatre suggested.

Doug gave him a look, heading for the door. "I'd rather run."

Chance and Jor exchanged looks before focusing on Quatre again.

"Bye, Doug," Chai muttered, smiling at him. "Come back tomorrow for lunch, huh?"

"I'll try," Doug reassured her...and darted out the door.

Chance and Jor focused on the empath.

"Something's up with Tro," Quatre supplied. "And he was going to tell us until Trowa was here, then he stewed on it too long and lost the courage."

"What could be up with Tro?" Chance asked in confusion.

"I couldn't tell you," Quatre shrugged. "He's mostly normal enough, but we don't live together anymore."

"Hm," Chance considered his friend a moment, then shrugged and looked to Jordan. "You're helping me move."

"Sorry, my girl wants to go out," Jordan returned promptly.

"I didn't ask," Chance retorted.

"I'm sorry, it's out of my hands," Jor shrugged, offering his palms as if the refusal was a visible thing.

Quatre grinned, moving into the kitchen.

"Oh, just help him," Chai ordered her husband, moving from the kitchen again. "If you do it fast, it'll be done."

Jor gave her a look.

"You, too," she added to Quatre. "If you all double-team it, it'll take about two minutes."

"How do five people double-team something?" Jordan protested at her.

"By poking fun at their wife and getting kicked out for the night," she retorted.

"Hey!" Jor protested, starting to laugh again.

Chai giggled herself and steered Quatre from the kitchen. "Your nails just got manicured," she noted. "Don't go getting them wet."

"They did not," Quatre protested at her, looking at his nails–sure, they were shaped and shiny...

Chai shoved him again.

"It's my turn to do dishes," Quatre persisted, moving back toward the kitchen.

"Actually, it's Jor's turn," she noted.

"Okay, Chance, let's go," Jordan agreed quickly, jumping to his feet.

Chai started laughing.

"Come on, Q," Chance suggested to the other. "If we're fast enough at this, you can come back and take over for her."

"You're missing my point," Quatre informed him.

Jordan flashed his wife a naughty grin, since she was in the hall, then shoved the blond for the front of the house. He almost darted after, then stopped and turned back toward her...which nearly ran him into Chance...then he darted around and kissed her sweetly...once or twice...and followed his friends from the house.

Chai rolled her eyes, moving back toward the sink. In all reality, Jordan was fairly hopeless at doing the dishes. He never scrubbed things off plates properly which led to clean food crusted on the plate. If he was doing the dishes to be sweet she let him, but other than that she chased him away from it.

She wasn't entirely sure why Quatre wanted to get his hands dirty with dishes instead of with helping his friend move...but it didn't matter anyway, because it wouldn't take them more than a half hour to get the job done anyway.

She set about cleaning her kitchen in her house, smiling happily as she did so.

She was damn lucky.

- -

October 17, A.C. 204. Imperia, Italy. 6am

"But it wouldn't pay for my men to have low quality weaponry," Danielle protested sweetly to the man she'd been dealing with. "What point would that be? I could buy them from an army surplus store."

"Those weapons are tracked," he protested quickly, sitting down in front of her. "Those weapons have trackers in them so the government always knows where they at."

And his English had seemed so good at first...

She considered him a moment. "I need to see the merchandise before I'll consent to buying it. My man will check them over for defects," she indicated one of the men of her entourage. They mostly looked like bodyguards, but this one was playing assistant.

"Let me...confer," he muttered, rising and moving closer to the area Riley was hiding in as he hit a button on his phone.

Danielle sighed as she turned to face the resource with a slight smile. "I'm sorry this is taking so long," she apologized quietly. "I truly thought they'd be more than happy to let me see the weapons."

"They have to protect their own interests," the man returned with a slight shrug. "All things in their time."

Danielle nodded again, looking back to the man who was muttering into his phone with his mouth partially covered. She'd have loved to have an earpiece with Riley to hear what he was saying, but they weren't sure how technologically advanced this group was. It wouldn't due for Riley to be found out because she herself was curious.

She couldn't wait to get back to the base again–maybe she could patch things up with Wufei. She really did miss him...

"Mind on our business, ma'am," one of the bodyguards muttered.

Danielle realized she'd been staring off into space and focused again on the man who was starting to come back to her. She smiled happily at him.

"Fine," he said, evidently pushed to the edge of his English abilities, since the word had a heavy accent to it. "Bring your man and two man," he held up two fingers...and started for the door.

Danielle considered him coolly a moment, then indicated three men should follow.

They gave her amused looks, moving obediently after.

She played the part of a spoiled rich woman very well, she even had the diva qualities down like she'd practiced them from birth...and her Italian was good, too.

The two groups separated with no ceremony, and headed for their separate destinations.

- -

October 16, A.C. 204. Inado, California, United States. 7pm

"Chance!"

"Chaz!" Chance moved across the walk toward the opening of Seven Deadly Sins.

"I'm surprised to see you out here," Chaz muttered, looking him over with interest. "You fighting with your girl or something?"

Chance shrugged somewhat uncomfortably at the guy and shook his head. "I'm gonna find Tro, and Jor might come out with Mouthy."

"Oh," the guy looked a little disheartened, then shrugged with a grin. "You goin' back?"

"A month away from my wedding?" Chance retorted in amusement. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Shin knew you were out here, didn't she?" he protested.

"The key thing is the word ‘wedding'," the soldier noted, making air-quotes. "It's this nifty unity thing you do when you find the one person you want to be with the rest of your life."

Chaz rolled his eyes. "Preach at me, Chance, see how far it gets you."

"I'm not preaching at you," Chance retorted. "I'm just explaining to you why I don't play back-room anymore. I kinda thought it might be a foreign concept for you."

The man flashed him a grin.

"You're the last, huh?" Chance added, thinking back to his group of friends. "We're ally marrying off one by one...you lookin' for someone or just skating?"

"Skating," the guy shrugged. "Maybe I'll get lucky some day and find a back-room girl to marry."

"I think that was just a special event for me," Chance noted in amusement. "Come on, Tro's been acting weird lately, maybe you can talk him into goin' back with you."

"I don't need anyone to go back with me," Chaz noted pointedly. "Pearl tastes the same whether you're by yourself or in a group of ten."

"Come on, let me set you up," Chance added somewhat eagerly. "I can find you someone..."

"A soldier?" the man demanded. "Someone to come and go like you? No thank you. I'll stick with the back-rooms sort of chances."

"I know...some...people...who aren't soldiers," Chance noted, then actually thought about it. "Dude...are you straight?"

Chaz laughed at that and elbowed him, which made him start laughing.

"Chance..."

Chance turned to see Xane slamming through the entrance with an obviously pissed expression. "Mouthy?" he asked.

"Fuckin' James," Xane explained, gesturing irritably behind himself. "He's pissing me off."

"What'd he do this time?"

"Haha," Xane retorted, moving around the guy before he stopped and met eyes with Chaz.

"Hey, Mouth," the guy muttered.

"Hey, home-wrecker."

Chaz grinned at that.

"So what's going on?" Chance persisted.

"James waited until we were at the door to tell me he didn't really want to come out tonight, that we shoulda just stayed home."

"You were gone a couple weeks," the Japanese male hazarded.

"Yeah, so I want to come have fun with my friends...damn," he turned away from them, composing himself.

"We aren't empaths," Chaz noted in amusement. "You're guy comin' in or what?"

"Or what," Xane returned, rolling his eyes. "He drove tonight and said he was leaving with or without me. I decided to fuck it and came in anyway. Jor's coming down with Chai in a while, so I knew I'd have a ride back in the end."

"Even if it is the end," Chaz suggested. "He's not gonna leave you is he?"

"I honestly don't give a fuck right now," Xane retorted, running his hands through his hair.

"Fibber," Chance reprimanded. "If you didn't care, you'd have ditched him by now."

"I need a drink," Xane noted...and walked off.

"He's in a chipper humor," Chaz mused.

"Yuy?"

Chance turned to the doors again as James himself stormed into the building. He stopped and looked Chaz over before looking back to Chance again. "Where's Xane?"

"Getting a drink," Chance returned, gesturing toward the bar. "You hanging out?"

"I have to, don't I?" the man retorted.

"Not really. I have a car that works...Jor has a car that works...hell, Tro has one that works. The fun thing is that they all have more than one seat."

The guy obviously wanted to retort to that, but Chance was his superior. He gave the man a disgusted look, then stormed toward the bar.

"Ten to one they're both single by final call," Chaz noted, amused.

"You're an ass," Chance returned, grinning a bit. "But Mouthy's kept it up this long, I don't think this will end it."

"I dunno, they both look a little riled."

"James is annoying," Chance shrugged.

"Adonis!"

Chance's face split into a true grin as he turned and scooped Chai into his arms as she giggled and hugged him back.

"I think I shouldn't have made that note to her," Jordan noted to Chaz.

"Which note? What?" Chaz shook his hand as he gave the guy a confused look.

"Back when Chance first found me again...she was asking me if he impressed me," he indicated Chance with a nod of his head. "I noted that he was a god and she's been calling him Adonis ever since."

Chaz smirked at that as Chai turned to greet him.

Chance frowned slightly, looking toward the bar with a tilt of his head to indicate Xane and James, who were bickering.

"Oh, great," Jordan rolled his own eyes.

"What?" Chaz asked blankly, looking between them.

"I don't like James," Jordan shrugged as he moved past. "Go scout us a table, huh?" he added to the group. "I'll get the drinks and food."

Chaz watched him in bemusement a moment before looking back to Chance.

"We read body language?" Chance offered.

"How about this?" Chai asked, flicking her hips.

"I'll dance with you all night," Chance returned, scooping her up in one arm.

Chai giggled at that.

"I'll go get us a table," Chaz muttered.

"You're the best," Chai gushed at him...and Chance swept her toward the dance floor.

For all that Chaz hadn't thought he'd do anything but hit the back room, he didn't mind being engulfed in a group...

"Chaz!"

Chaz looked up to a redheaded male who looked vaguely familiar.

"Hey, Chaz," Trowa greeted him. "Come sit down, huh?"

"Chance, Jor, Chai, Mouthy and...James...are here," Chaz noted. "I'm table scouting."

"Ours is big enough," Trowa reassured him in amusement. "Help me pull this table over," he indicated a near-by empty.

Chaz shrugged and complied.