Yaoi, OOC, AU, continuation of story after ‘Endless Waltz’

AC 203

Minuet I

By Katana Rey

He looked beautiful. But then, Duo thought fondly, he was always beautiful. He looked at the still, slender figure standing in front of him and stretched out his hand to cradle the exquisite face.

‘….’

Duo sighed as Heero flinched away from his touch. A rueful grin twitched his lips as he dropped the outstretched hand to his side and turned to the watchful blond standing by Heero’s side.

‘Hello Quatre.’ He smiled warmly, a smile that slowly died as it was met by two cold gazes. ‘I guess that you don’t really feel like talking to me right now. Eh?’

Quatre’s eyes glittered like green ice as he took a step forward, placing himself as an obstacle between Heero and Duo.

‘You don’t really think that either of us has anything to say to you. Do you?’

Duo sighed again, then looked up with a cool, insouciant grin, as he suddenly slammed Quatre to the ground with a right hook. Heero jerked briefly then stilled as he heard the metallic clicks on the guns, now aimed directly at him. He glowered at Duo with fury as the latter stepped over Quatre’s body, deliberately forcing him to look up to maintain eye contact.

Duo reached out again, unable to stop himself, and gently traced the delicate outline of Heero’s face.

‘So beautiful.’ He murmured softly to himself, firming his grip on the fragile neck, as Heero stiffened at his words and started to move backwards. ‘I know that you won’t talk Heero. Whatever I do.’ Duo crooned softly into Heero’s ear as he leaned forward to brush his cheek against that cold perfection. He tightened his grip on the neck, causing Heero to grunt softly in involuntary protest.

‘But, Quatre.’ Duo smiled as he forced Heero’s face upwards till they were eye to eye. Duo’s lips were almost on Heero’s own as he continued to speak. ‘He’s different. I don’t think that he’ll be able to bear seeing you hurt. Do you?’ He asked mockingly, as he released his angry captive with a gently shove and gestured to the nearby soldiers to grab hold of the thin youth.

Heero held still as the soldiers put their hands on him, roughly forcing him to his knees as they pulled his arms toward his back, but his simmering eyes promised a volcanic return for his current indignities.

‘Now then, Quatre. Let’s try this again shall we?’ Duo turned the prone figure over with his foot, and waited patiently until Quatre moved slowly back on his feet, rubbing at his sore jaw. He looked at Duo with something akin to hatred as he struggled against the rough hands that clamped around his arms.

‘Where are the plans for Wing Zero, Quatre?’ Duo asked sweetly. ‘You remember, the plans that you used to build the Wing Zero? Where have you hidden them?’

Quatre felt fear burning in his guts as he stared at the deceptively charming smile on Duo’s face. ‘I.. I don’t know.’ He said at last, truthfully. Duo’s eyes narrowed as his telepath nodded once, indicating that Quatre was telling the truth. He stared silently at the defiant blond, as he slowly debated his options, then reaching a decision he turned and grabbing the gun from the nearest guard he pointed it at Heero, who looked back at him with calm poise, and fired.

Quatre had jerked forward at the blast, only to stop as he realised that at the last minute, Duo had slightly altered his aim, so that the blast missed Heero, who stayed absolutely still. ‘What do you think you are doing?’ Quatre screamed, in his relief and rage.

Duo turned back and grinned. ‘I could ask you the same question you know. What do you think you are doing? You do realise that the only reason Heero is alive is you. We don’t need him. But we can use him. We can use him as leverage against you. And you, we can continue to use, even after you tell us where the plans are. We can use you to help us build it. You did it before. And as long as you are useful, we’ll keep Heero alive. So you see, if I truly believe that you can’t help us, then Heero’s going to have to die. So, what do you say now Quatre? The plans for Wing Zero?’

Quatre bit his lips as he stared at Duo’s face blankly. He hesitated as he glanced back at the silent figure held captive and knew that Heero wasn’t going to forgive him for co operating with their enemy but Quatre knew that neither could he simply stand by and watch as Heero was killed. ‘I don’t know where the plans are hidden. Wait!’ He called out desperately as Duo once again took aim. ‘You don’t understand. I don’t know where they are hidden because I didn’t hide them. I.. I sent them.’ Quatre licked his dry lips as he turned away from the sudden accusing blaze in Heero’s eyes. ‘I sent them to Trowa. But he doesn’t have it yet either.’

Duo’s eyes narrowed coldly as he considered Quatre’s answer. ‘I see, so technically no one has the plans, is that it?’ He turned to his telepath and slapped him, hard. ‘That makes you no more reliable than a silly polygraph. I can’t believe you didn’t see through that little subterfuge. Huh. Word games. And you,’ Duo grasped Quatre’s collar and pulled him forward, ‘any more word games and I start playing with Heero. Understood?’ He glared as Quatre snarled a surly assent. ‘Good. Now then, you can start by telling me how we are going to retrieve the plans for Wing Zero. As for Heero, I’m going to see if the psyche department could do with a new guinea pig. Oh don’t worry.’ Duo smiled as Quatre started to protest, ‘I only intend to make sure that Heero’s not going to cause us any additional problems. I just don’t need an explosives expert and a hacker running loose in my facility. I think I’d prefer him to specialise in… oh, gardening? Oh yes, and make him an artist as well, that’d be nice, don’t you think?’

Quatre continued to look apprehensive as a quiet Heero was led away by wary guards. ‘Is that what happened to you?’ He asked bitterly, as his eyes followed out the beloved form, lingering on the afterimage, even when the steel doors had closed firmly. ‘Did someone order up a special blend of talents to use in torturing and killing people?’

‘Don’t get so melodramatic Quatre,’ Duo responded dryly as he gestured for Quatre to sit down at the small table where he’d been waiting for their arrival. ‘I’m in this for job satisfaction you know. I mean, just think about how useful your Wing Zero is going to be. And it’s not like we want the entire robot after all. We are only interested in the Zero system. And now, we’ve wasted enough time on pleasantries, let’s get down to work. I want to know how I, excuse me, how we can retrieve the plans. Well?’

* * * * *

‘How did it go?’

‘Mmmm…. Don’t stop. That’s it. That’s the stop. Mmmmmm…..’ Duo leaned back and smiled in contentment.

‘Hey! Don’t go to sleep now. I was asking what happened?’

‘Ouch! Don’t pull on the braid.’

‘C’mon. Tell me. Did you get it? I even gave you a massage. Tell me, or…’

‘Or?’

‘Or, I can always go and look at the vid record of your interrogation.’

‘Hey, no fair. That’s cheating.’

‘I know.’

‘You know something, Wufei? You are no fun.’

Wufei laughed smugly. ‘I know.’ He settled himself casually into the chair and leant back, entwining his fingers behind his neck. ‘I also know that you got the plans to Wing Zero. And that you managed to get Heero. Finally.’ He teased, with a sly glance at the picture of the taciturn pilot on Duo’s desk.

Duo sniffed, ‘if you know so much, then why do you need to ask?’

‘Because,’ Wufei shrugged. ‘I want to hear all the details. You’ve been looking for an opportunity to get back at Quatre, ever since he managed to steal your Heero. I can’t believe you managed to dig out that old reference to the Zero system and its possibilities in enhancing psi abilities, not to mention sell it as a project to the Foundation’s board of directors, just so that you could get an excuse to go after those two.’

‘Well, what can I say?’ Duo laughed. ‘I don’t like to lose.’ His eyes hardened as he reached out to caress the lovely face in the crystal frame. ‘And I honestly think that my project has a better chance of succeeding than yours anyway.’ He sniggered. ‘I can’t believe that you got picked to head up a project working with plants. Heh.’

Wufei grimaced, ‘it’s actually not as wild as it sounds. I couldn’t believe it either but Project Delta does have intriguing possibilities. What really worries me is not so much whether it would work, as whether we want it to work. I don’t have a problem with using developing living computers, but I’m not too keen on those hybrids that the boys in the lab are trying to develop. You know, the ones that are crossed with plant genes?’

‘Hmm….’ Duo shrugged carelessly. ‘I don’t really care actually. Project Gamma is the one that worries me. Did you read their most recent proposal?’

Wufei snorted, ‘you mean the one where they want to release nanites designed to modify neural pathways so that everyone becomes an instant telepath. Yeah. I couldn’t believe the idiots who came up with that idea. Can you imagine the chaos that would create? Thank goodness, the directors rejected that looney idea immediately.’

‘No. Not that idiocy, I’m actually talking about their contingency plan. Didn’t you read the conundrum? Wufei! I’m shocked.’ Duo grinned, as Wufei looked slightly embarrassed. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t read these proposals thoroughly.’

‘Oh come on. They’re boring. And there’s a new one every week. Not to mention that I have to keep working on coming up with updates every month. It’s hard enough just keeping tracking of the wretched reports from my own project, without worrying about anyone else’s.’ Wufei groaned.

‘I don’t know.’ Duo mused thoughtfully, as he drummed his fingers idly on his immaculate desk. ‘I think that you should try to keep up with what’s happening in the other projects actually. And you really should have read that final attachment more carefully, that’s why Project Gamma received additional funding, even after their proposal got trashed at the last meeting. The project leader at Gamma projected that the best method of dealing with the chaos generated with everyone becoming a nanite modified telepath was to provide an additional alteration, one where a selected group of people receive further alteration to become a ‘hive queen’ as it were. Instant society. Not a bad concept in a way. Except, that’s not what the Foundation was interested in. So, no to the proposal to create instant telepaths but yes to continuation of project and experimentation of creating a group mind and, most importantly for our directors, a new type of oligarchy.’

‘Yeah, yeah, you’re real enlightened. Okay? And now that you’ve stalled enough, will you just tell me what happened with Quatre?’ Wufei yawned and stretched lazily, as he resettled in his chair.

Duo grinned, in truly insufferable smugness as he also leaned back. ‘All right. What do you want to know?’

‘Everything! Come on, Maxwell. Cough it up.’

‘There’s not that much to tell really.’ Duo teased lightly, laughing as Wufei glowered in mock fury, ‘apparently Winner decided that the safest way to hold on the plans is to make sure that no one had it. So,’ he shrugged. ‘The answer was obvious.’

‘You really want to die, don’t you Shinigami?’ Wufei growled.

‘He put the plans into a special deposit in Switzerland, and organized for the account to be released to Barton. In another 47 years.’ Duo added lightly, as his eyes once again strayed fondly to the picture of Heero.

’47 years!’ Wufei spluttered. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Yeah, I know. So, he obviously had a contingency plan, so that he could access the plans if necessary during that time.’

‘Obviously.’ Wufei agreed. Then as Duo sat silent with a mischievous grin, Wufei scowled. ‘And…’ He prompted.

‘And…’ Duo drawled out, amused by the irritation on Wufei’s face. ‘I need three people’s permission in order to access that account before the time limit.’

‘Maxwell..’

‘The three people are; Trowa Barton, Quatre Rebarba Winner and…’ Duo paused dramatically, with a teasing grin. ‘Millard Peacecraft.’

‘What!’ Wufei spat. ‘You can’t be serious. You know we can’t get Millard’s permission. Not since the colonies declared their independence and blockaded Earth. We’re stuck here and unfortunately, he is out of our reach, literally and figuratively. That bastard. Winner did this deliberately!’

‘Don’t get so upset Wufei. I already have all their permission. And in fact, even as we speak, I’m waiting for the plans to be delivered to me by my agent. They’ve already been collected from the account.’ Duo spoke coolly, twirling his pen between his fingers, as was his habit.

‘What… how…’ Wufei sat back, stunned.

‘I wish that the directors were nearly as easy to impress as you, Chang.’ Duo looked amused. ‘I just rang and asked Relena. Oh, yeah, that director. Remember, she’s also a Peacecraft. We just explained that Millard was…. um… unavailable and that she had his power of attorney. And that was that.’

‘Impressive.’ Wufei admitted. ‘But what about Trowa? How’d you get him to agree to all this?’

‘Gee Wufei, you’ve just got to love all this family bonding, right? Can you imagine, all it took was a request to have Catherine volunteer for one of our project as an experimental subject. Trowa was very co operative actually.’

‘So, you’ve got Heero. You’ve got the plans. What about Winner? What are you going to do with Quatre?’ Wufei asked in amused admiration. ‘You know he’s trouble and he has connections. Once his family realises that he’s in your custody, they’ll move heaven and earth to get him back.’

Duo tapped his desk idly, as he spoke, his eyes intent on his friend’s face. ‘So, who’s to know where he is?’ He murmured softly, absently stroking the oval crystal frame as he continued. ‘For all anyone knows, for all I know, he just… disappeared. With his lover. That’s so romantic don’t you think?’

Wufei shuddered inwardly as he looked at the serious eyes and the oddly contrasting, sensual smile underneath. ‘I think I’ve just lost all my curiosity regarding Quatre’s whereabouts.’

‘That’s an interesting coincidence. So have I.’ Duo smirked.

* * * * *

Heero sat and brooded in his small cell. He hugged his knees to his chest as he crouched in the corner of the empty, brightly lit room. He knew that Quatre was making a terrible mistake by co operating with Duo. He should have just killed that bastard when he had the chance. Heero tightened his grip as he tried to erase the memories that just kept flooding back.

I love you.

A smiling face.

The sun glittered on the long chestnut hair, as a heart shaped face looked up at him from his lap and smiled.

Heero shivered involuntarily as he remembered the warmth in that smile. Holding promise of happiness and protection. His eyes welled with unshed tears as his body burned from the suppressed rage. A lie.

You are mine.

The face, transformed by a cruel and twisted smile.

A heavy weight pressing down him, cold fingers digging painfully into his flesh as he lay, trapped in the darkness.

A shuddering sob shook his thin body as Heero gasped from the surging remembered pain, anger and fury. His eyes burned with impotent rage. And Heero tried, again, futilely, to forget the past and to focus on the present. To try to think about his options, to escape and to rescue Quatre but even as he strove, yet another image from the past came and blotted out this present.

A gun.

And a smiling face looking at him, with love and confidence.

‘You can’t shoot me, Heero. I love you. I promise I’ll be back for you.’

And a shape running away from his blurring vision. Then as the nearest building exploded, spitting crimson flames and black debris, he found himself thrown violently to the ground, the gun skittering from his loosened grip. A wall of silence ascended and blanketed him as he lay stunned. Trying to understand, that it was his friend, his lover, who had been responsible for this new death and destruction.

Heero sobbed again, as the bitterness flooded him. The memories overwhelmed him, he closed his eyes tightly and tried to will away the intruding images as they burned again and again into his aching mind.

‘I have a new job Heero.’

‘I want you to tell me all about your job at Nexus. I want to you to tell me everything.’

‘Let me see your identicard. Why is it that these photos always turn out terrible? Still I don’t think you could take a bad picture if you tried.’

‘You’ve met Quatre, again? How many times does this make in a week? Don’t tell me that you are meeting him as a representative of Nexus. He’s just trying to get close to you.’

‘I want you to quit your job at Nexus, Heero. We don’t really need a second income, not with my new promotion.’

‘I warned you to quit Nexus Heero. This is all your fault. I didn’t know that they were hosting a school excursion on your day off. You know that I couldn’t risk getting you hurt.’

‘So now you want to know who I’m working for. Why didn’t you ask me earlier? You are just asking me because Quatre asked you to find out. I know that Quatre’s been lying to you Heero. The Foundation isn’t what he’s claiming it is. For heaven’s sake, Relena Peacecraft is on the board of executive directors, do you really think that she’d be involved if we were thinking about world domination? That’s ludicrous. I want you to come back to our apartment, Heero. It’s lonely without you.’

‘I can’t believe you keep buying into all these lies that Quatre’s telling you. How can you blame the Foundation for the Colonies’ actions? You don’t really care about them anyway do you? They’re just a convenient disposal place for human waste. We are just trying to save Earth. Heero. Don’t you dare walk away from me! Heero!’

‘I told you not to stay with Quatre, Heero. He’s going to get you killed. Here, look after this wound or you might get a nasty infection. I’d take you with me now but unfortunately, I can’t carry you and this. Don’t worry, I’ll come back for you. I promise.’

Heero shuddered and gasped for breath, trying to calm himself. He gritted his teeth and tried to focus on a plan of action. To escape, to rescue Quatre, to… Heero blinked in shock as the door opened suddenly and a limp figure was thrown in.

* * * * *

Quatre looked at Wufei with undisguised scorn and distaste, and pushed the lap top away.

‘You can’t seriously believe that I’ll co operate with your little attempt to break apart the Winner Tech Incorporated. I’m afraid that you’ll have to do this the hard way.’

Wufei shrugged carelessly. ‘Well, it was worth a try, anyway. Maxwell did mention that you were feeling rather bad tempered right now. I just thought that you might benefit from being in my care rather than his. You know he doesn’t like you very much. Beside which, I really could have used the R & D component of Winner Tech. We’re apparently looking into a similar area.’

Quatre glared back silently.

Wufei waited for a moment longer than shrugged. He stood up and moved towards a blank wall. Then he said, ‘Okay, Maxwell, you win. You were right. He’s not going to make this easy. So, now it’s your turn, hotshot. Lets see how persuasive you are.’

The wall split in half and opened slowly, revealing a laboratory inside. From his cell, Quatre could look inside and see a large room, filled with glowing, green tubes, and other equipment. An eerie sight, made worse by the biohazard suits worn by the few figures walking around the tubes, monitoring and adjusting equipment continuously.

After a while, Quatre could no longer bear the silence and reluctantly, he turned to Wufei, who had walked to join him in viewing the grotesque sight. ‘What is this? What are you showing me and why?’

* * * * *

Heero waited patiently until his fellow prisoner regained consciousness.

Sally groaned as she tried to sit up and a blinding burst of pain in her head told her that it was a mistake to try to move. She moaned softly as she felt a cool hand smoothing back the strands from her forehead. She coughed painfully, wishing that she could just slip back into blissful unconsciousness.

‘Sally.’

She stirred, she recognised that husky voice. Sally moaned in protest as she felt herself being manoeuvred gently into a sitting position.

‘Sally, can you hear me?’

She croaked hoarsely as she tried to answer.

‘He… Heero. What… why are you…. here?’

Sally tried to open her swollen eyes.

* * * * *

‘Why don’t I answer your questions, Quatre?’

Quatre found himself stiffening automatically as he felt another presence behind him. Duo walked over to the newly revealed window and smiled coldly as he looked into the greenly lit room.

‘You’ve got to admit, Wufei, that the green light really looks cool.’ Duo mused idly. ‘I wonder if it’s actually necessary or if those scientists just wanted to make their project look creepy on purpose. You know. Dress for power sort of thing.’

Wufei snorted, ‘Don’t be so fanciful, Maxwell. I don’t care what the colouring is, this would look revolting in any colouring, to be honest.’ He gestured at the man sized tubes and the bio hazard suits worn by the technicians inside.

‘Wufei, are you this scared around your own project?’

‘Are you kidding? I don’t have anything to do with Delta at this level, I only deal with the reports that they send up. You know I don’t like getting involved in the experimental side.’

‘Don’t like to get your hands dirty, eh?’ Duo grinned at Wufei, who merely grimaced and shook his head. ‘Oh well, that’s where we are different, I guess. I kind of like playing with new things. Especially at the experimental stage. For example, at Epsilon, we are interested in exploring the boundaries of the human mind.’ Duo turned and winked at Quatre who paled, as he began to realise that the tubes held living beings.

‘Project Epsilon deals with manipulating the human mind. We start with the premise that the mind is infinitely flexible, for example, we can take anyone, absolutely anyone at all, and turn him or her, into a killing machine. That’s not really that difficult, hell, even our ancestors were able to do that, though not without using some kind of drug dependency or other aberrations that leaves the killer, hmmm… lets call it, socially incompetent.’ Duo smiled sweetly at Quatre who was looking at him in horror.

‘I have to admit, there is more of a challenge when you try to create a killer who is very able to ingratiate him or herself into normal society and function as an ordinary person,’ Duo’s eyes glittered coolly as he placed an open hand on the glass, watching the activity in the room with avid interest. However, both Quatre and Wufei’s attention were riveted on Duo.

‘Still, being able to produce a killer isn’t really that much of a challenge you know. What we were interested in, why Romefeller Foundation first began funding Project Epsilon, was in seeing if we could use the same concept to produce intellectual or creative geniuses. Can you imagine, being able to produce a Beethoven or an Einstein on demand? It’s an old concept of course and our counterpart, Theta, is looking at genetic manipulation to achieve the same ends. They’re looking at altering foetuses. But Epilson is dealing with a different aspect. We are interesting in transforming ordinary people, not,’ he couldn’t help chuckling softly to himself, ‘like you or me, but ordinary people, people who don’t listen, people who don’t think and people who just live out their lives in dreary sameness, time after time. Imagine, instead of a population of fools, we’d be able to create a population of geniuses. Of course,’ Duo mused thoughtfully, ‘there are a few, minor problems.’

‘Maxwell.’ Wufei managed to get out a brief word of warning, before an incensed Quatre leapt forward and smashed both himself and Duo against the unyielding glass.

Duo and Quatre folded in a tangle of frenzied arms and legs and the furious blond was only finally pulled off his prey by the three guards who had arrived in response to Wufei’s call.

Wufei fingered the long scratch left on Duo’s bloodied face and summoned a medic. He also told the guards to place restraints on Quatre’s arms and legs before dismissing them.

Duo glared indignantly at Quatre who was looking at him in absolute hatred. ‘I can’t believe you went psycho like that. I don’t know what set you off this time but you definitely need help. To think that I used to think that Heero was exaggerating when he described you going nutzoid in the Wing Zero. Huh. Man, I hurt, everywhere. Where’s that medic?’

‘He’s coming. Maxwell, you are an idiot. I told you to keep him in restraints but oh no…’

‘Wufei. No body like an ‘I told you so’, so shut up.’

Quatre continued to struggle silently against the steel restraints, as he burned with hatred for the abomination that masqueraded as a pleasant, smiling human. When he was listening to the rubbish spewed by Duo Maxwell, he began to finally understand that he was totally and absolutely, evil.

* * * * *

‘Sally, we have to get out of here.’

Heero spoke gently, as he sat cradling the injured woman in his arms.

Sally smiled painfully. She still couldn’t see anything more than a blur with her damaged eyes and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to move. Hell, she could barely talk.

‘Heero…’ She managed to croak, ‘you have to… you have to go… alone. Leave… me.’

Heero’s arms tightened, almost painfully. ‘No.’

‘Please… Heero. … Go.’

Sally gasped out, wishing that she could just die or fall unconscious, anything to get away from the constant pain. She stopped as a warm drop of water fell on her face. A tear?

* * * * *

‘It’s an interesting idea. I didn’t realise that Epilson was more than just a project in looking at enhancing humans with cybernetic implants.’

‘That’s because you don’t pay attend enough meetings.’ Duo sniggered. ‘What was your last excuse? Oh yeah, that you had to attend an emergency at the Delta centre. And what was the emergency anyway? Your message never specified that.’

‘Oh, that.’ Wufei blushed. ‘One of our plants got a little too attached to a technician and tried to follow her home. She wasn’t really happy about that and one thing led to another, and well…’ he grinned, ‘you won’t believe this but I almost lost biodome 2 over that incident.’

‘You are going to have to tell me more about that later.’ Duo chuckled. ‘But now, you’ll have to excuse me while I continue my discussion with our reluctant guest. You know, Quatre, you are going to have to something about that nasty temper of yours. Ouch, that had to hurt.’ He waved the medic towards the struggling blond. ‘Do something for his wrists will you?’

* * * * *

Heero sighed as Sally drifted once again into unconsciousness. He wondered what he should do now. Escape with the severely injured woman was impossible, but he couldn’t bear to just abandon her. He held her closely to him, wishing that he could do more. Heero smoothed her hair once more, trying to push the tangled strands away from the pale face.

‘Sally. I’m sorry. I can’t leave you. Not like this.’ Heero murmured softly to the unconscious woman, feeling an odd sense of peace as he decided to stay and wait, with her.

* * * * *

‘Have you thought about what you were going to do with Heero?’

Duo started, and turned to see Wufei, looking at him solemnly. ‘What do you mean, Wufei?’ He noted with amusement that Quatre had stopped struggling and was listening intently at the mention of Heero.

‘Well, it’s just. You know what he’s like. He’s going to be trouble. I don’t like the idea of just leaving him in a cell.’

‘Oh Wufei, you underestimate me.’ Duo laughed. ‘Don’t worry, Heero’s not going to cause us any trouble, at least not right now. He’s probably too occupied by his new cell mate to be spending any attention to trying to escape.’

Wufei frowned, he didn’t like the look in Maxwell’s eyes when he mentioned the cell mate. He contemplated pushing for further information and then decided to wait, Duo always ended up telling him everything, sooner or later, he could always count on Duo’s love of having an audience.

Quatre sat and fumed silently. He ignored the medic who continued to work silently, to first staunch the bleeding and then to protect the wrists from further damage with generous bandaging. He almost missed the tiny click when the medic loosened the restraints, first on his wrists then, his legs as he shielded his activity behind the first aid container. Quatre deliberately kept his eyes on Duo and Wufei as they continued to spar light heartedly, in their verbal dancing, and saw the medic pack up the container than leave silently. He narrowed his gaze as he tested the restraints carefully. Tempting though it was, to simply jump up and strangle Duo, his new restraints had been the result of that foolish manoeuvre and Quatre decided that he needed to think through his next move more carefully. He intended to survive and also to rescue Heero, as well as the new cell mate that Duo was hinting at. Quatre wondered who that could be.

* * * * *

tbc…