"Defying Gravity"

A Romance in Three Parts

Written By: Kaeru Shisho

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: AU, yaoi, some language

Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3

Summary: A multi part story of romance starting with a turning point vacation, developing throughout a dangerous UC mission, and moving ahead through the unexpected challenges of a summer vacation.

"Part Two: It's Back to Work"

Over the next few weeks, Mill and I worked out our re-la-shun-ship like real adults. We partied, bar-hopped, clubbed enough to establish our reputations as player and "bitch" of player. But, as things were happening under our own roof—foundations being built, emotional walls being torn down and re-erected—absolutely nothing was happening in the house that we were watching across the street. Our intended target was awfully quiet.

I got up from the desk and turned off the screen to the laptop, going into the kitchen to find Mill, who was turning the marinating steaks for dinner. I walked behind him, wrapped my arms around his waist and nuzzled the hair at the nape of his neck.

"Do you know how much I love to watch you, Wind?"

"That is your stomach doing the talking, I know. How long do these need to rest before cooking?"

"The longer the better."

He shivered in my arms. I liked getting those kinds of responses out of him. I did not imagine it, either. I liked—no—I loved the way his beautiful gray-blue eyes turned to a darker shade of lust when he looked at me. The fact that he could get a raging hard-on from a simple kiss was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Knowing that he wanted me, made me try to even harder to be the man that he wanted me to be.

It was necessary that we project that kind of intimacy to pull off the job.

Oh, I hadn't changed much per se, but my anger and down right brash and rude comments didn't have a place between us. Mill just ignored half of them anyway, and I got no satisfaction from that. I still had a hard time letting it go with the rest of the world, but I did as I let our roles consume me.

"Anything happening?" Mill asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"No, and I don't see anything happening until Gunter gets back to the house. I have the feed from his cameras pulled up and I've got them all singled out. The motion sensors have been temporarily suspended and I'm about to go exploring, while I have control of the house." I leaned in and nipped his ear. "Are you about done so you can watch over me?"

"My part of the dinner preparation is complete, like I'd let you be that foolish without watching over you." He stepped over and washed his hands and I stepped with him, still holding on tightly. "Promise me Scythe: just the cameras, the tracking devices, and a couple of bugs. Do not go inside of that house until we get a bona-fide invitation."

"I promise boss-man." I turned him around and kissed his lips. "Just watch over me and keep in radio contact. I'll be in and out with no worries. The codes are already in my system. Pull them up as I place the cameras, and we'll know for sure if they're in a good position."

"You are actually trusting me to watch your back?" Mill eyed me cautiously.

I met and held his eyes. "You and I both know that I still have a few issues, but I'm trying Mill. I feel like I can trust you."

He rested his forehead on my shoulder and pressed his hand against my stomach. "What do I have to do for you to know it here, in your gut, Duo?"

"Hey, I'm getting there. Did you honestly expect us to come this far at all?"

Mill sighed heavily and looked away. "No."

"Yeah, well, you've been blinded by miss-applied lust."

I sighed, taking him by the hand and leading him into the office where I'd been earlier. I placed the small flesh-colored patches that served as a microphone transmitter to my throat and another small patch behind my left ear that took the place of a standard earpiece.

"Tap into these very carefully and see if they're up. Try not to ruin my hearing for the rest of my life in the process." I fit the cameras into my pockets and leaned over, giving Mill a kiss as he sat in the office chair. "Keep me company?"

He nodded and smiled as he began typing and entering my codes into the computer. I walked out of the office, mentally preparing for what I was about to do. I made my way out of the house and into the garage, waiting for Mill's voice to come through the patch. I knew where I thought that the transmitters and cameras would do the best work, unfortunately that was in the damned house. However, I also felt that if I placed them just right in certain areas, I could bring the frequencies up on several transmitters at a time, doubling or even tripling the sound that came through. I ambled over, seemingly carefree down the block as if I was taking my daily stroll.

"Hey, gorgeous," Mill's voice purred through the receiver.

I could do no more than groan and I knew that he had liked that sound. He always liked the sound of those groans. "Don't start."

His voice alone could make me hard at times and I found it distracting. There had been people that I might have imagined getting off with, but there had been only Heero who had actually made my cock spring to life. Now i knew Mill could excite me, too, and wanted it to go away. I tried not to think about Mill or Heero.

"I know someone's home, I can feel it."

"Servants or guards—who knows? Too bad we can't see through walls," he said quietly. "But by the body heat signals on the house, they're all at the other end."

I walked as Mill spoke to me through the nearly invisible patch, making my way across the front yard and then into the garage of our target. I placed a camera facing into the garage hidden in a vent in the roof overhang and then positioned tracking devices in the undercarriage of the white utility van as well as the twin BMW's. As I lay underneath the rightmost of the twin sedans, I heard Mill's voice quietly come through.

"Hold your position. We've got a body-heat sig heading right for the garage."

I pulled my body underneath the car, thankful for my small size once again, and turned my head looking towards the door. The door opened and I saw feet, bare feet, those of a child. I almost moved out from under the car when I heard Mill's voice again.

"Don't even think about it. There's another signature heading towards the first and it's a lot bigger. I'm trying to pull up the bugs."

I waited, unable to tell him that I'd not placed them. I eased one out of my pocket and turned it on, holding it flat in my hand. I hate waiting and watching, trying not to blow my cover, when I know that people, and especially kids, are moving into a dangerous situation. This little kid that was walking quietly through the garage seemed cautious. I heard another voice, another male voice, from the direction of the door that the child had come from. All I could see of the adult male were black jeans on his legs and black boots.

"Jimmy," the male said. "You were told when you arrived that you were not to step foot outside of the house. What are you doing out here?"

The child, with the voice of a young boy, stuttered. "I...I just wanted to...I want to play outside."

"No."

"But...when can I go home?"

"This is your home now Jimmy and this is where you stay now. Herr Gunter explained that to you when you came to live with him."

"But my mom..."

"Doesn't want you Jimmy. Herr Gunter was kind enough to take you into his home and feed and clothe you. Do not make him angry for disobeying him. He would hate to have to punish you for being disobedient in what you were instructed."

"Please no. Don't, I promise I'll be good, just please don't tell him I was out here," the boy pleaded.

I could hear the fear and the panic in his voice and it made me hurt. It hurt me deeply that I couldn't just roll out from under that car and take him home. I was having a hard time breathing by this point. I watched as the male stepped closer to the boy and squatted in front of him. I could see more of the male now and on his hip was a .38 special. Oh lovely, I thought, guarding helpless kids with armed men.

The man gave a small chuckle. "Have you ever been punished?"

The boy didn't give an audible response, but somehow I knew that he'd nodded that he had.

"Well then, you know exactly what happens when you don't do as you're told. I'll not say anything about this Jimmy, but I won't forget about it either."

The man stood and began walking the child back inside the house. I must have whimpered or made some sort of sound, because next I heard Mill's voice came through ever so softly.

"Breathe baby. Just lay there a minute and breathe. They're walking towards the other side of the house now."

I took a deep breath and lay there, still, underneath the car. I whispered, "Tell me that you recorded that, please tell me you got all of that."

"I did, babe, and I'm sending the video feed as well as the audio feed to the Preventer's now. You okay?"

I lay there with chills running through my body. "No," I whispered. "Not really. Can I get up now?"

"You're clear. Place the rest of those cameras and the bugs and get out of there."

I rolled out from under the car, thankful that I'd placed that first camera when I'd entered the garage. I placed the bugs in the places that I'd designated and hoped I'd be able to combine them later on. As I placed another camera, I had a thought.

"Wind?"

"Hum?"

"Can you tell where he took the boy?"

"He's in the very last bedroom, which from what I can tell is the one in the corner in the backyard. There are two other signatures in that room, about his size. The adult is in what we've mapped as the living room with one other. Why?"

I shrugged knowing he couldn't see me and wasn't going to answer him. I then realized he probably could see me, but I'd already made up my mind. I needed to get a bug into that room and a camera if I could help it. Even getting a bug close to that room would help.

"Don't do it, Scythe. Leave it and get out."

I still didn't answer as I made my way into the backyard and through the shrubbery and other trees; and moved over to the window of the room the children were in. I slipped the screen off of the window and noticed that there was an alarm that went off if the window was raised. There was just enough room to raise the window about an inch and a half without setting off the alarm.

"Damn it, Scythe, you're going to fuck this up. Get out of there and we'll come up with something. Duo!"

I raised the window up that fraction of an inch and placed the bug in the window track as I listened to a very angry Mill rant and carry on. There were heavy curtains covering the window and I knew that there was no way to put in a camera here. I could hear movement in the room, but I didn't want to move the curtains and give my presence away. I shut the window carefully and replaced the screen. There was nothing else I could do.

I swiftly disappeared and reappeared a moment later on the sidewalk and began my leisurely afternoon walk down the street again. After another twenty minutes, I stood in our own garage, taking a deep breath, centering my thoughts, and calming my pounding heart, before I went into the house.

Inside the house, I looked for Mill, peeling the patches from my throat and from behind my ear on my way to the office. He was on the laptop, typing irritably. I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I could not just leave without trying. I need you to understand that."

He took a deep breath and kept typing. "If our cover is blown, those kids have to stay there; they don't have a chance of getting out. Don't you understand that?"

"I know that but..."

"But nothing. We do not have enough evidence to bring this down. I've got pictures of the boy and the man that came after him and we'll get an identity soon enough. Until we know who that kid is, until we know that that kid doesn't really belong there, there's nothing we can do. For all we know, the kids' mother didn't want him and Gunter is now his guardian."

"Are you telling me you didn't hear the fear and panic in that little boy's voice?"

"I heard, Scythe, but the guy only mentioned punishment; he didn't say what kind and didn't touch him in any suggestive way. For all we know, the punishment could be standing in the corner."

"How could you think that's all it is? I know that voice; I know that pleading and that fear. That boy does not belong there."

I moved my hand from Mill's shoulder, unbelieving that he could be so cold about this. Mill got up from the chair and tried to slip his arms around my shoulders, but I backed away.

"Don't," I said angrily. I wanted him to know exactly how I felt.

"Duo," he said quietly. "Scythe, I'm not saying that I believe it's that way. I'm saying that what we have right now is circumstantial evidence and we have to wait. We certainly don't want him to get off because we jumped the gun and raided his house, when he wasn't even there mind you, and didn't have enough evidence to fry the bastard."

I knew that what Mill was telling me was true. Any other time, I knew I'd probably be agreeing, but I'd never had a case like this before. Not one that involved kids like this. Not one where if I changed the plans on the strength of my gut feeling, that no one would question me. I wrapped my arms around him, buried my face in his shoulder, and closed my eyes.

"Gods, Wind. Those kids are in there and we can't do anything about it. They're being hurt and we're sitting here across the street, waiting to see enough of it."

"I know. What is it you always say? Hold on, give me a second...I read your file...Oh, yes: 'I love my job!'"

"I never really mean that, you know, and this time, I'm really beginning to hate my job."

I moved over and sat in the chair, pulling up all of Gunter's own cameras and monitors, forcing them to relinquish control over to me. I brought up the devices that I'd planted and set them up to sound an alarm when activity began on any of them. I routed the feed from the bugs into separate files, so that they could be replayed each day, knowing I'd be unable to sit and listen if something was happening.

Mill stood behind me, running his hands through my long brown hair, loosening it from the braid. When I told him I was cutting it two days ago, he'd begged me not to cut it. At the time, I'd laughed, meaning to cut it anyway. But, when he started this thing of massaging my scalp and running his fingers through my hair, I just couldn't do it. His touch to me was comforting and reassuring and I craved it like nothing else.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" I asked, knowing what he meant.

He'd been trying to get me to open up even more about what happened between the time that I was born until I was suited up in a Gundam at fifteen. Never in my life had I known that talking about things that hurt actually served to help ease that pain, except to Heero. I knew though that Mill could be another one I could talk to about anything, but I felt guilty enough giving him my trust and allowing his touch, sharing the closeness Heero and I had worked so hard to achieve with another man.

"What you're feeling."

"I'm feeling disgusted." I sat as I sat back in the chair, feeling his fingers massage my scalp so expertly. "Totally and completely disgusted."

"You're not the only one, believe me."

"When I lived on L2, what happened to strays, the boys and girls..." I paused. My stomach lurched violently at the images from my past and I jumped up from the chair, running towards the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet when I began retching into it. I knelt in front of that porcelain goddess and held on tightly. Every time I thought I had thrown up every bit of anything in my stomach, a new image would flash in my mind, causing it to begin all over again.

I felt a cool cloth on the back of my neck and shivered. Mill was now kneeling behind me, wrapping one arm around my chest and pulling me against him, taking the cloth with his free hand and pressing it to my forehead. I sank into his arms there on the bathroom floor and Gods forbid, I actually cried.

The first few days following my episode were quiet. I think Mill was afraid to broach the subject with me again. I knew he'd gone so far as to slip me a sedative in my beer the second night, I'd seen the residue at the bottom of the bottle. I wasn't going to be the one to tell him that alcohol and sedatives were not a good mixture, or remind him of the fact that they didn't really work with the anti-drug serums either of us were on. I also knew he was doing what he thought he could to help, so I didn't point out the fruitlessness of his actions.

I shook my head and muttered to myself, "Don't worry about it, Duo, everything will be fine. It's not like we planned it this way."

I pulled up the log for our alarms and other surveillance equipment looking to see if they had been triggered. There wasn't a single thing out of line. I then pulled up the feed for the cameras that littered the inside and outside of our house. I began to go through each camera and each feed, watching the video play-back.

Mill closed his laptop and pushed it off of him, before stretching out onto the futon—my futon—lying on his side, eyes closed. "I'll just watch."

"Yeah, through your eyelids. Don't worry. Take a nap in your own bed."

I let my hand wander absently through my bangs noticing that my brown locks had grown longer and that the hair products we'd bought had encouraged natural curl to them now. The tendrils of hair snaked over my fingers.

"I love your hair, Scythe, the way the curls wrap around your fingers."

"Uh, huh," I grunted, ignoring him. I wasn't going to enter into any game play with that man. After a few minutes, Mill was asleep.

Six days into the audio replay, I heard crying, a little boy crying that he did not want to go with the bald man again because he hurt him too much. I jerked my head up from listening as I lay on the pillow and paused the recording, replaying that part of the file to make sure that was what I'd actually heard. It was the same and then Gunter's voice came over the feed.

"Jimmy, Jimmy, what are we going to do with you? That 'bald man' is paying a lot of money for your company tonight. Perhaps someday you will find someone that will only enjoy your presence and not your services. Until then, you'll go where I command you to go, or I'll take it out of your hide myself. Is that understood?"

It broke my heart to hear Jimmy's voice. By the date on the tape, I knew it had been too late. I knew that he'd already been harmed. I stopped the file before it could go on and lay my head on the desk in disgust.

The doorbell rang and I froze. I was not expecting anyone, and we didn't exactly know anyone here. I slid off the chair, trying not to wake Mill, and slipped on a t-shirt, only to find out that it was Mill's and too long and baggy across the chest. I answered the door anyway and stared at a blond-streaked, red-haired, green-eyed, young man, dressed too well to be the skater freak I took him for at first. His body was lean and stood several inches taller than me. He smiled as if everything was right with the world. I squinted at the bright afternoon sunlight that framed his figure.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, Duo, I'm Trowa, remember?" He held out a hand to me. "Or are we Scythe and Tamer now?"

I just nodded until reality sank in. "Oh, man! Tro-baby! Come in. I mean, whoa... The change of hair just makes you look so different. Sorry. Come in."

"I have the surveillance upgrades. Still no word on when the big shindig's happening?"

"No, it's all taking much longer than Mill thought."

"Oh, I bet that's a real bummer on the free time, huh?" Trowa asked, looking around the house. "Nice place. You and Milliardo share this, I assume."

"Um, huh." I heard the questioning in his voice and noticed the interest in his eyes. "We work from home, I don't know if he mentioned that to you."

"I've heard," he replied with a dry chuckle.

"Yeah, well, I'll show you your room. When's Quatre coming?"

"You mean, Sand? Depends on the shuttle schedule. Couple days."

"Crappy code names, huh? Well, until then, you got a room to yourself."

"And yours?" he asked.

"I share with Mill." That didn't sound right, so I elaborated as I led the way to the office. "We share the bathroom and a closet. We needed a room to set up the monitoring, so I sleep on the futon there."

"Tight accommodations when the other two get here, or are we all supposed to be sleeping together?"

"The ... who?"

His blank face questioned me a moment. "Blake Edwards and Aiden Moore."

"Oh, yeah. The other two agents. Man, I'd completely forgotten about them. Things have been very...absorbing here. Ahhhh..."

I held on to the conversation as I turned to the table nearest the door, opened the small drawer, and grabbed a business card out of it that had the web-site address that the Preventer's had set up especially for this sting and handed it to him.

"There's a list of the sites that supposedly Wind's built and a few that he runs on the main page. But, you didn't get that from me." I put on my best fake smile. "If it's offensive to you, just look the other way."

"You want me to make sure someone gets this, right?" Trowa asked.

"Yep, a piece of slime called Gunter. We're doing the club rounds tonight, and I'm sure he'll want to meet you."

"Okay, I'll need a nap first. Oh, and this," Trowa held out an envelope. "A man gave me this as I walked up to the house. Looks like an invitation."

"A man just gave this to you?"

"In a black limousine. Tinted windows. No plates. The driver passed it over. Said I should give it to the 'lovely boy inside.' I take that to be you."

I ignored his smirk and ripped open the sealed envelope. "Oh," I said after deciphering the scribbled handwriting. "Alric Gunter remembers seeing me at a club downtown. How nice. He's in and out of town a lot, but he's going to be here throwing a small Valentine's Day party. Nothing too big, but not too small. How...chummy. He is interested in our coming."

I looked up and smiled. "Trowa, you've made my day. I mean, at last we're making some headway. I'll give this to Mill when he wakes up."

"I thought you'd be pleased." Trowa set a box on the table. "Ran into Yuy. He sends you his greetings."

I blinked and looked away. "It's been just a few weeks, but it seems like months." I met Trowa's eyes. "This is my last undercover job."

He nodded. "It's not my thing at all."

"So, have you ID'd the dude from the feed I sent from the house across the street?" I asked.

"Yeah. Strom Anton. He's got a petty record, nothing significant and the only time he's done has been for minor possession. He's currently on probation though, so he shouldn't be anywhere near a gun. He's not important to us as far as we see, so far."

"Except that later on, if we can use him for information, we might consider cutting him a deal," I said lightly, although, I couldn't help noticing that Trowa's eyes were veiled, concealing something. "What is it, Tro? Your instincts are usually right on."

"Bad feelings. Place doesn't look swanky enough for the owner of that limo. Sure you're watching the right place?"

"It's what Preventer's says," I said, emphasizing the Preventer's role in the information. "It's pretty quiet, which bugs me now that you add in the fancy-ass car. Still. there's the one boy, Jimmy. Have they ID'd him?"

Trowa went silent.

"Trowa?"

Trowa cleared his throat. "Such a sweet-looking kid, huh?"

"Listen to the pain in his voice Trowa, all of his sweet looks won't bring back his innocence." I bit my lip to keep my composure. "Tell me about the boy."

"His name is Jimmy Tulver." He withdrew a disc from his shirt pocket and handed over. "He's an only child and he's thirteen years old. It was not their typical runaway kidnapping. He was reported missing six months ago by his mother— estranged father. She thought he was on his way home from a friend's house, but he never made it. Found out from the friend's uncle that the kids had followed him into the red-light district, though he didn't know it at the time. Jimmy got scared and left alone. The others figured he'd made it back okay. Two days after the mother reported him missing she was found in their apartment, bound and shot execution style. Guess they figured out they'd taken the wrong kid, one with family who cared."

"Six months?" I shook my head.

"Take a look at the disc."

I loaded it and clicked on the file with a photo attached to it. "What's this?"

"When you go to that big Valentine's Day bash, look for any pictures or evidence on the boy in this picture and the bald man."

"If the boy shows up across the street first—I'll need a tracking device, Trowa."

"WIP." He smiled grimly. "Do you remember the little pill that was developed to be swallowed and take pictures of the inside of the body and intestines and stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Yuy's working up some identical to that, but they are transmitters. They will work up to five hundred feet. If you can get one to the boy before the party, perhaps we can see who Mr. Bald-man is."

I must have given him a hopeful look, because he met my eyes. "I think you can expect a personal visit from Yuy to deliver those. Mill's been limiting his contact with you, but since this is a personal request on your part—"

"Thanks, Tro-man. I'd like that to be a personal delivery."

He nodded and smiled. "I'll get word. Now, where's a shower?"

He was crashed out in the now-furnished bedroom before Mill got to speak to him. Having another trophy to hang on Mill's arm would ease my burden, so I was happy, but not happy that it had to be Trowa. He wasn't one to chatter on about his past, and we all knew that to have been a mercenary before he was fifteen it had to have been gritty at best. I do know, because he let it slip out after a great dinner I'd cooked and a beer, that he had had a rough few years on the bar scene, before he and Quatre became hooked up. He hinted once at a couple pickups gone bad, but no details were forthcoming. I knew he'd had sex with at least another guy other than Quatre, but the particulars...nada.

"Let him sleep while he can," I said to Mill. "After tonight's debut, nightmares might keep him awake."

And my premonition came true, in a way—the evening did end in a nightmare. The problem came at the clubs where we'd last seen Gunter and his pals. He was there again this time surrounded by an entourage of boys and henchmen, at least that's what they looked like. I wished I'd had a camera to collect some of those faces, and scanned for security cameras that I might hack into later. Didn't see any, but Trowa had an even better eye than I for those, so I wasn't worried. I just memorized what I could.

When one of the henchmen approached Trowa, they spoke briefly and Trowa passed on one of Mill's porn-site cards. Gunter, it seemed, was deep in conversation with a couple of the boys at his table. He accepted the card from his intermediary and looked around for Trowa, tilting of his head questioningly when Trowa nodded and smiled. I wrapped an arm around his waist and another around Mill's, hoping Gunter would get the message that Trowa was one of Mill's stable. He did. A few minutes later, a waiter brought us drinks, "from the gentleman over there," indicating Gunter's table.

"We shouldn't drink these," I warned, unnecessarily.

"We could send a sample to the labs," Trowa suggested, "if we'd thought to pack a liquid sample kit tonight."

"That would have been smart. Why hadn't I thought of that? It would mean I wouldn't have to drink this," I pointed out. "I've avoided the drug aspect so far."

"Your body has enough serum to counter most anything," Mill said. "I wouldn't worry."

"Good point." I drank the entire glass, raising the empty container Gunter's way to show him I had and to offer him my thanks.

Ten minutes later, I was outside puking my guts up. My head was pounding and my vision blurred. Mill carried me to the car and they got me home. Trowa extracted enough blood from my arm that I accused him of being a vampire.

I was a little loopy after that, I guess, and scared them. Me, too. I hate the way drugs take your control away from you. When you lose your control, others can inflict theirs over you, which I have never found to be pleasant or good in any way. It's a bad way to hide from problems, and the side effects wreak hell on a body. That's one of the reasons I stayed clear of shrinks. They think you've gotta problem and they slam you with a cocktail of drugs; that, and they make you dredge up a lotta crap about your past and your feelings that just should stay sunk at the bottom.

Anyway, so much for Preventer's anti-drug serum.

Chapter 7

Back to Kaeru Shisho's Fiction

Back to GW Authors Index.