Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ - 33 - ( Chapter 33 )

— 33 —

February 7, A.C. 205. Base. 12 pm

"So would that be okay? Really?" Kiley asked Quatre nervously as she pulled up to the main building.

"Its fine," Quatre reassured her again, moving from the doors. He'd been in his office when his sister had called and told him that Carl had asked her...begged her...to go with him to a meeting.

Actually, Quatre didn't get the impression that there was any begging involved. He figured his brother-in-law had asked and she'd agreed, then realized she had her son on hand...and hey, look, Uncle Quatre isn't even ten minutes away.

Not that he minded at all.

"We have to go," Kiley added as Quatre moved up to the side of her car. She blinked at him a moment, then put the machine in park as Richard climbed out.

"What?" Quatre asked blankly, stepping back as she swung the door open. "Don't you have to go?"

She shook her head distantly, closing the door as Richard moved around, giving her a confused look. "Wow," she added quietly, looking him over from head to foot.

Quatre looked down at his uniform blankly. "Wow? Am I dirty?" he shifted to see his legs better in confusion.

"You look...dashing," she informed him, blinking as she met his eyes.

"What?" he asked her blankly.

"I've never seen you in uniform," she noted, stepping forward to touch the rank tag. "At least...not in real life...oh, Quatre."

The soldier considered that a moment, not entirely sure what to make of her appraisal, then grinned somewhat impishly...and saluted her. Full military salute.

She laughed a little at that, moving forward to hug him.

"You don't need to do that kind of thing to gain respect, Mr. Winner," Carl noted in amusement from the car. "You're very name rings with it."

"But my name was given to me," Quatre returned, hugging his sister before stepping back and leaning down some to look in. "I did this on my own...sort of."

"Sort of?" Carl asked blankly.

"I wasn't the only person fighting in those wars," Quatre reminded him. "And I'm definitely not the only lieutenant general on the base."

That got him a grin.

"You're going to be late," Richard noted, glancing at his cell phone. "You realize that, don't you?"

"Oh..." Kiley hugged Quatre again briefly before smiling at her son and sliding back into the car. She waved at the two males as she quickly hit reverse...then drove off.

"She's...excitable," Quatre noted blankly.

"If you'd ever bothered to talk to her before, you'd have noticed that," Richard agreed.

Quatre turned to study his eyes, then raised his eyebrows. "You know what? I'm not having that conversation with you for another three years. Feel free to be bitter at me if it gets your rocks off," he started for the building. "Come on. I have to organize some shit this morning, then we can go check out the mecha..." he hesitated, turning to look at the boy.

Richard was moving very slowly after him.

"What?"

"How am I supposed to react to that?" Richard demanded, moving to catch up. "You just completely dismissed..."

"The reasoning behind my not getting to know my twenty-eight sisters is a bit complicated," Quatre noted pointedly. "There are layers of self-pity, spite, fear, and empathy mixed in this tight little ball," he made a gesture in front of his chest. "You might be able to see some of it, but evidently I've hurt your mother's feelings, which will be what you get stuck on. It's one of those deep conversations that we won't be having when I'm in full dress uniform and have to go see my superior. Then I have to go see the other generals to fix up our cross-training. When I get that figured out we can have some fun, but this will take an hour or so, so bear with me. Are you anti MS?"

"Anti MS?" Richard echoed, following him into the bustling building and looking around as Quatre nodded almost randomly. It took the nineteen year old a moment to realize that just about everyone they passed were...no...no, everyone they were passing was saluting his uncle.

"You know? Mobile suits? I can't ever keep clear which sisters are steadfastly pacifist and which just don't like war. I assume you've inherited your mother's preferences, but that doesn't tell me much."

Richard grinned and shrugged as they started up some stairs. "I'm...they're kinda cool, I suppose. I mean, they're huge...and the way that you guys could move them..."

Quatre gave him a curious look as they headed for Une's office.

"We did some research on the wars for my social studies class senior year," the kid explained. "I looked up a couple battles that had footage."

The former pilot flinched hard at that, his stomach churning very slightly. Battles weren't pretty things.

"Is that...okay?" Richard asked hesitantly.

"You're your own person," Quatre reminded him. "My approval comes in where money starts coming up."

"That's an asshole thing to say," Richard protested. "Why are you like that?"

"Because I don't like thinking about what you might have seen," Quatre retorted. "It scares me that you might be able to dismiss the casualties and put me up on some pedestal or something."

"We weren't allowed to see the footage with actual casualties," the boy protested. "Most of it was distant air battles...are you...you..." he hesitated, stopping in the little lobby outside Une's office to study his uncle's eyes. "Are you ashamed?"

"I did what I had to do," the former pilot said quietly. "Not what I liked to do, not what I'd ever want to do again...and definitely not what I want you to look at and think is cool. I will admit that we were able to pull some shit. The gundams were exquisite pieces of machinery."

"I don't like war, Uncle," Richard noted quietly, studying his eyes. "I don't like to know that you've killed people...but you had skills in your machine, and you obviously did something right," he indicated the uniform.

Quatre studied him a long moment in silence before nodding his head slightly and tapping on the door.

"Enter," Une said in her I'm-doing-something tone.

Quatre pushed into the office, moving to stand in front of her desk and salute.

"Good morning, Winner," she greeted him, smiling slightly as she met his eyes, then looked to his nephew and blinked.

"This is my long lost twin," Quatre explained happily. "He's been off playing with bunnies."

Une grinned at that as Richard gave his uncle a completely disbelieving look.

Quatre flashed his nephew a grin as well, moving to sit across from the woman. "I need you to okay the training facilities for me," he noted. "I could commandeer them, but I'd rather not piss off that many people."

"Why do you need them?" she asked blankly, meeting his eyes again. "I thought your team was trained."

Quatre pulled out his necklace and displayed the magnet at her.

"That looks cheesy," she informed him. "At least pick the glue off."

Quatre laughed at that, studying the thing and shaking his head before tucking it away. "Don't change the subject. Chang is working on designs that won't clash with the uniforms anyway. What I mean is that my team goes by instinct...or empathy...or whatever you want to call it. Now that we have these I want to train them properly. I'm going to spin them through the others again, but I want to have that building."

Une considered him a long moment before looking back up to Richard, who was standing uncertainly behind him. She smiled slightly at the boy again, then looked back to her pilot. "And what's the point in that?"

"Because I haven't done anything official with my team, and it's starting to look like Jordan's going to couple them with his team and see what babies they make."

Richard choked on that.

"Really, Quatre," Une chided him, frowning. "Show decorum in the uniform..."

"When there are witnesses," he finished for her, then grinned and shrugged. "If you don't do it now I'm just going to come around and pester you about it all day. You know I'll get my way in the end because there's no reason to refute it. Why put yourself through the aggravation? ...or are we neglecting you?"

Une gave him a severely level look before making a flippant gesture with one hand. "Leave me alone and I'll have it on your desk in a couple hours."

"Wonderful," Quatre returned happily, bouncing back to his feet. "Did I ever tell you how wonderful a leader you are?"

"If you're going to flatter me," she retorted, looking back to him again, "tell me I'm pretty and look young."

"I'll make a note and pass it on," he reassured her, starting for the doors. "Have a good day, gorgeous."

She flashed him an appreciative grin as he left the room with another salute.

"You did not...just...do that..." Richard said in amazement, studying the man in shock.

"Didn't I?" Quatre asked curiously. "What did I do, then?"

"Submitted a formal request with proper respects?" the teen offered.

"And you don't speak Italian," Quatre reassured him in the language.

Richard couldn't help but grin at that.

"Come on," Quatre added, starting up the hall again. "I want to hit Chance up first. I can probably get Allul to train them...and if he's got Doe with him I can suggest she finds Paris."

"I didn't think maps were that hard to read," Richard suggested, moving to give him another confused look.

Quatre flashed him an appreciative grin at that and pulled out his cell, hitting the six.

"Yes, oh mighty leader?" Paris asked sweetly.

"I can't seem to find France," Quatre returned just as happily. "My nephew here is interested in it."

"Ooh, he's with you?" Paris sounded happy. "Should I bring the bedraggled peasants?"

There were several protests on that from the background.

"No, just the map will do fine. I can show him the peasants after we establish the kingdom."

"Kingdom?" Paris asked blankly. "Are you saying I'm a king? I can do a king..."

"Sweetie, you told me you were straight," Quatre retorted happily...and closed his phone as Paris started laughing.

Richard was giving him a confused look.

Quatre winked at him, and tapped on Chance's door.

- -

February 7, A.C. 205. Base. 3 pm

Jordan grinned slightly as he looked at the folder Richard had just passed him. He'd had the boy run to pick it up for him, and if his heavy breathing suggested anything, he probably had run...but he was expecting things to be exciting, and Jordan saw no reason to disappoint him. It was one of those things the guy would reflect on in time, then wonder why Jor'd had him running, but for now, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Was that all?" Richard asked, studying Jor with bright eyes.

"That was all," Jordan reassured him, resting his hand possessively on the folder as he stared at the name on the tab. "Thank you."

"What is this?"

"The records of someone I really want to get to know," Jordan returned, petting the thing.

Richard thought the man looked a tad manic, so he looked around the office before dropping into a chair across from him. "So...this is your office?"

"Yep," Jordan agreed, sliding the folder closer to him as he met the boy's eyes. "None of us wanted large offices, so Une gave us this size. It suits us mostly."

The kid nodded, studying him again.

"Do my eyes really bother you that much?" the solider asked curiously, studying the kid with a mild grin.

"I've never seen it before," the kid explained, looking down. "I'm sorry."

"I don't really mind, it just makes things a tad uncomfortable. I've only had two people stare into my eyes like that, and I sleep with one of them."

Richard ducked down in his seat, mortified.

"Though I suppose it's three at that," Jordan added, looking up toward the ceiling. "Can't forget Jon, now."

Richard's focus changed to his face instantly.

"How's base life treating you?" Jor added, meeting his eyes innocently. "You thinking about joining at all?"

"Me?" Richard asked in amusement. "Jordan...I'm the next heir...I can't join the military...and I can't take orders. I give them, you know?"

"So you'll play soldier for the hour and get bored with it?"

"Or something," the kid agreed, almost rolling his eyes.

That was amusing.

"Sorry, took longer than I thought," Quatre muttered, moving into the office.

"Did you find a pretty girl?" Jordan asked him sweetly in Japanese.

Quatre gave him a look, but ignored the words.

"Its okay, Jordan had me pick some stuff up for him," Richard reassured his uncle, hopping to his feet with that same happy look.

"Cool," Quatre noted, nodding approvingly–the boy looked extremely pleased at that, but it passed quickly. The soldier looked back to his friend. "We're going to the field. Tro's out there working so I figured I'd take him and go see what mischief we could get into."

"If Max is out there, ask him what time lunch normally runs to."

"You know he probably started helping Tro and got set to task."

Jor grinned and nodded. He'd actually had that figured out for a long while. It was beside the point.

"Later," Richard muttered to Jor, waving very slightly before following his uncle from the room.

That was amusing.

Jordan focused back on the folder he'd had the boy pick up for him. If he'd gone to get himself, he'd have been argued with. They'd have demanded why he needed it and what they were supposed to do about it being gone, other nonsensical points until they got permission from Une to let the thing out. Sending Richard with the note changed the situation around to where they could grumble, but the order was written down and it couldn't be argued with a guest civilian, especially when the order came from a lieutenant general.

Colonel Stanley Gomez Turell, arms disposal specialist extrodanaire...the bastard who disappeared with the arms.

Jordan grinned more to himself and flipped the file open.

Before it was all said and done with, he'd know the man's mother personally.

- -

February 8, A.C. 205. Fuzhou, China. 3 pm

"Hey," Chao muttered happily over Xane's phone.

"Hey, what's up?" Xane returned, moving from the small café he'd started working at the previous day. True to his word, Chao had shoved the job on Xane when he'd woken up Monday morning, and he only worked ten hours a week.

"Something came up," Chao returned, sounding tired. "I can't pick you up...can you get home on your own?"

Xane looked to the bus stop in front of him, wanting to snort. "That's fine...what's going on?"

"Are you sure? I know it's inconvenient, but..."

"Its fine, Chao," Xane reassured him. "It's no hassle. What's going on?"

"David causing more problems," he returned wryly. "Evidently he has a mech that he wants displayed."

Xane's heart skipped a beat. "Really? Can I see it?"

That made Chao laugh a little, and he was silent a long moment. "We'll see," he noted. "I won't be home for another hour or two, okay?"

"All right," Xane reassured him, smirking very slightly. Chao was going to get him in to see the machine, he just wouldn't openly concede to it. He either wanted it to be a surprise or people were there.

"Love you," Chao said quietly...and hung up.

Xane stopped, pulling the phone away from his ear in horror.

Oh, Jordan would be pleased by that one...

He hurried to jump on the bus that had pulled up, sliding his card through the machine before dropping into an empty seat and focusing on putting the phone away.

It wasn't like Chao was the first person to claim love and run. That was when Xane usually started being a bit more of a dick and quietly pushed the person away without causing them actual pain. The only person he'd actually returned the words for was James.

Actually, the fact that Chao had hung up that fast showed that he didn't expect the emotion to be returned. He probably still remembered the bit where "Chris" was so hesitant to actually move in with him, and Xane's other mannerisms of enjoyment, but not a real thing. Maybe he was hoping something would grow there.

That made Xane sad, though, because he did like Chao...despite his less-than-admirable practices. The guy was doing just about everything in his power to win Xane over fully...

Xane shifted down in his seat. He was going home and going to start digging through the man's files, because he needed what information he could get. He felt bad that he was so completely abusing the man's trust in a way that could get him sent to prison, but not bad enough to stop, because he wasn't in China to find the love of his life. He was in China to get more information to stop the arms trading. He was in China to get as many names and connections as he could.

He was in China on a mission.

He shook his head slightly, rubbing at his neck.

Jor was going to be pissed. He might even start on again about getting out of there early.

It wasn't going to be a pretty conversation.

- -

February 8, A.C. 205. Vladivostok, Russia. 9 am

"Later, Kody."

"Later, Vlad," Raul muttered, waving slightly as he moved back onto the street.

He was excited.

David Shire, the man with the weapons connection, had agreed that he had mecha for the entertainment of a rich boy from Taiwan. The guy had decided he wanted to rub his money in "Kody's" face, and had invited him along for the viewing.

Evidently it was taking place in China...though David hadn't said where yet. He'd said that they needed to be at his place by nine on Friday, and they'd take his jet to the place in question for the weekend.

Actually, at first he'd said it needed to be the next day, but whoever his resource was in China hadn't had the facilities ready.

Vlad wasn't terribly happy that Raul had been invited along, he'd pulled Raul aside and told him to be very careful in China. He'd said that the people hosting the event were an odd group and that if you crossed them, they killed you or ruined you. Actually he'd been muttering so insistently in Raul's ear that the guy from Taiwan...Juan Tsai...had insisted that Vlad go along as well.

Vlad had managed to wriggle out of it by claiming other duties, but Raul didn't actually want out.

He grinned to himself happily as he headed for his apartment.

He couldn't wait to call Jordan.

- -

E/N: Sorry about how long this one took to get up, I'll try to be better at it...