---------------------
      Protection
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	As Duo continued to do pull-ups on the overhead bar, he kept a 
close eye on Heero.  He didn't expect that Heero would require spotting 
while bench pressing, but one never knew.  At least Heero wasn't trying 
to push his weight limits.  Piloting a Gundam was hard work, but the 
most he did these days was move furniture or loosen a recalcitrant screw 
beneath the hood of their jeep.  This was, in Duo's estimation, a very 
good thing.  Heero's body was getting tired of the edge of human 
endurance.

	Duo amused himself by keeping time with Heero, one pull-up for 
one lift.  The two exercises were not quite equivalent, but the 
continuing duration was good for a burn in the muscles of all those 
involved.  He dropped lightly to his feet when Heero hefted the bar back 
onto the rests.  As they both rotated shoulders and other sundry things 
to settle everything in their proper places, Duo commented, "We should 
really think about getting our own equipment."

	The minimal facilities provided at the town's rec center served 
their occasional need to train more heartily than they could do so in 
their home, but they had discussed the possibility of acquiring their 
own equipment before.  "Garage?" Heero asked laconically.

	With the jeep and their two bikes in there, plus the various 
other items stored within, a small fitness center would fit, but in all 
likelihood it wouldn't be very comfortable.  "Still looking for 
something compact."  And yet sturdy enough to hold up under a real 
workout, hopefully involving a significant range of exercises.  "I 
checked the Sunday paper.  Nothing looked very promising."

	"Then we can wait."  Following their established pattern, they 
were spacing out their home purchases, waiting for the best items to 
come up at good prices.  Being willing to settle was what brought their 
home to its liveable, but adequate state.  Their purpose was to improve.  
It was actually pretty spiffy to have something to finally spend their 
money on.  It gave them more of the feeling of working for a living, 
rather than working just because.

	Duo watched as Heero neatly folded the towel that he had laid 
between his back and the bench.  Another advantage of having their own 
equipment would be in knowing just where the equipment had been, and how 
it had been treated.  "Hey, not that I want to turn your room into a 
storage closet or anything, but now that you spend most nights in my 
room..."

	It sounded like a playful suggestion, so Heero noted it, but 
otherwise paid it little heed, opting instead to speak his mind on 
something else that had just sprung to the front of his consciousness.  
"We should think about protection."  He found one of the small towels 
they had brought with them and patted the sweat from his skin.

	Duo blinked at him, his mind trying to make the logical leap 
from storage closets to protection.  Protection?  Against what?  Blink.  
Waaaaait.  Twitch.  "Excuse me?"

	"You know."  He met Duo's eyes in an act of utter nonchalance.  
"Safe sex practices."

	Yeah, that was, unfortunately, what Duo had thought he was 
talking about.  "Heero!" he whined.  "Where the hell do you come up with 
these things all of a sudden?"  He held up a warning finger.  "I know.  
Thinking about everything.  Well, geez, stop thinking once in a while!"

	Heero opened his mouth to respond, but realized that it would be 
nothing he had not said before.  He could no sooner stop thinking than 
he could stop loving Duo, especially since the two were so tied together 
in this case, and he got the distinct feeling that saying so now would 
only earn him a bit of sparring to cap off their workout session.  
Lacking that, he had only one thing left to say in his defense.  "It was 
just the towel... and the bench..."

	Duo smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, which 
reminded him that he needed to clean up a bit as well.  He fetched his 
own towel and began applying it liberally.  "Look," he marched forward 
with the discussion, hoping to get this out of the way quickly.  "I 
don't have any diseases, you don't have any diseases, end of story, 
right?  We have complete physicals every year.  We're not random 
strangers.  And I don't think we have to worry about unplanned 
pregnancy, either.  Or doing anything... you know.  Funny.  Funny-weird.  
Or sleeping around.  I mean, even Suzuhara-san just tossed us some lube 
and no condoms, right?  And obviously she was thinking ahead.  So why 
should we think about this?"

	Heero shrugged.  He knew there were very few risks, unlike in 
the case of falling in the shower.  "It just seemed like something we 
should think about.  It feels better to be able to say that we thought 
about things like condoms and then dismissed them, rather than that we 
didn't think about it because it just slipped our minds."

	So it was a responsibility thing.  Okay, he could deal with 
that.  If it had been someone else, he might have suspected some sort of 
slur against his background, but this was Heero.  Implied slurs didn't 
often occur to the poor boy.  "Well, we can go out and pick up some 
condoms, if that's what you want."  By which he really meant, Heero 
could go out and pick up some condoms.  Did condoms have expiration 
dates, he wondered.  They probably wouldn't be used any time soon.  Come 
to think of it, he should probably check out that tube of lube that was 
still floating around in a drawer somewhere, from where he'd shoved it 
months ago in a fit of embarrassment.  It also probably wouldn't be used 
any time soon, but it said something that he could even think about the 
whole matter now without that same level of instant mortification.  
Maybe all the out-of-the-blue questions were succeeding in desensitizing 
him, slowly but surely.

	Despite the kind offer, Heero shook his head.  Again, he was 
about to say something before he reconsidered and simply shook his head 
once more.  "That won't be necessary."

	Sensing that there was something behind the refusal that he was 
simply unwilling to speak, Duo straddled the bench across from Heero and 
peered up into his face.  Heh, so Heero wanted to go au naturel, did he?  
And he wasn't quite making eye contact.  How cute.  It was just as well.  
He could imagine Heero stopping in the middle of something very 
delicious to take the time to read the application instructions on the 
box.  Actually, he could imagine Heero reading the instructions ahead of 
time and even practicing first, just to make sure he had it right.  
Being that Heero seemed to have the faintest hint of a blush covered, 
though the heat could have come from the workout, Duo figured that he 
was freed from the responsibility of turning red himself.  Instead, he 
grinned.  "Well, the fewer props your little fantasies involve, the 
happier I'll be, I guess.  Of course, this all brings to mind yet 
another reason we should get our own bench set."

	Heero stared cluelessly at him.  "What?"

	He ran his hand suggestively down the length of the padded bench 
and up Heero's thigh, fingertips slipping in just barely underneath the 
hem of his shorts.  "Aren't there always cheap sex scenes involving 
gyms?"

	A bit disturbed, Heero blinked a few times, waiting patiently 
for Duo to stop waiting for an answer.  He was outwaited.  "I don't 
know.  Are there?"

	The gleam in Duo's eye betrayed his teasing.  "You tell me.  
You're the one watching sleazy porn all the time."

	Now disturbed, confused, and surprised, Heero drew back.  
"Excuse me?"

	Duo snickered.  "You with your showers and your gyms and your 
laptop.  You are so watching porn behind my back!"  He snatched his hand 
back before Heero could capture it around the wrist.

	"I am not!" Heero called out after him as he bounced off the 
bench and out of harm's way.  Heero would have given swift pursuit, but 
chose dignity instead, gathering up their things into their bag in 
preparation for departure.  His solemn composure was only slightly 
broken when he bundled up Duo's t-shirt and threw it at its owner before 
shrugging on his own light jacket over his tank top.

	An annual fee granted them access to the recreational facilities 
after hours, which was their normal visiting time.  They locked up 
efficiently behind themselves and started the walk back home in the late 
summer night.  The seasonable heat of the day did not quite desert the 
town after the sun went down.

	It was nice at night, when no one else was around.  After two 
blocks, Duo stopped and looked up into the sky.  The stars were out.  If 
he used his imagination, he could make out the faint spot of light that 
marked the L1 cluster against the shadow of the moon.  His eyes dropped 
from the heavens to find that Heero was stargazing as well.  He smiled.  
"Scenic route?"

	They turned right at the corner when they would normally have 
gone straight.  Since it was a lengthier path, they turned their 
midnight stroll into a midnight jog.  In the morning, it would serve as 
a wonderful excuse to sleep in and cuddle a little bit longer.  If there 
was one disadvantage to their using the same bed at night, it was that 
they no longer had to get out of bed to see each other in the morning.  
It made them indulgent in the early hours, with the routine jog becoming 
more of an unwelcome intruder.  At least the days were longer at this 
time of year.  Waking up with the sun meant having more time until their 
jog to bask in their companionable laziness.

	Haven was a sleepy suburb, even when it wasn't the middle of the 
night.  Not all of the areas had been reconstructed during the project 
after the war.  Not all of the original occupants had remained.  
Buildings were not so dense that there couldn't be the occasional 
stretch of road left to nature for the sake of enhancing the rural feel 
of things.  There were a few uses for these areas.  Some sported small 
fields that masqueraded as parks, good for playing with the dog or the 
kids.  Some had fences useful for signs and banners to be hung 
advertising local events.  Real estate agents often planted their 
markers here and there.  Occasionally there was a turn-out from the 
road, and one in particular was shielded by some trees and reputed to be 
a good make-out spot.

	Heero and Duo could make out quite happily in the comfort of 
their own home, thank you very much.  Duo didn't even want to consider 
how much thought Heero would devote to the logistics behind intimate 
maneuvering with a steering wheel and gear shaft in the way, not even to 
mention the degree of possible exhibitionism.  No, that particular 
stretch of road held no interest for them, except for this one night, 
when they heard a young lady's voice carried softly, yet clearly through 
the obliging air.

	"Let go of me!"  The sound was irritable, though with an 
undertone of worry.

	With a sidelong glance at each other, they went straight where 
they would have turned left, and sped their pace while they were at it.

	"Get back here!"  The voice of another young person, though male 
this time.

	"I said let go!"

	It could have been a simple lover's spat.  The faint squeal that 
came out of a startled young lady didn't have to be a dire signal.  The 
smack of flesh slapping against flesh, well, they decided not to chance 
it, in any case.

	"Owww!"  It was, reassuringly, the man that made the noise.  
Seconds later, a flustered teenaged girl came scurrying out of the 
hollow in the trees along the road, her clothing slightly askew.  Two 
seconds more, and an angry teenaged boy came limping after her, hunched 
over in the characteristic manner one of who has just taken a hit to the 
groin.  "Bitch!  Come back here!"

	Fast approaching the scene, they recognized the girl.  "Hey, 
Hope!" Duo called out cheerfully, waving at her.

	Her eyes widened gratefully.  "Duo!"  She hustled to their side.

	"Hey, who the hell are you?" the unnamed male demanded, trying 
to walk upright.  They recognized him as a new guy that had recently 
moved into town with his folks.  Passingly good-looking, but his 
attractiveness probably lay in his coolness factor, with what they could 
tell looking out their window.  He'd only picked up their neighbor twice 
for a date, but he'd done so in a shiny car, and first garnered their 
attention by the way he sped off noisily.

	They casually placed Hope behind them as Duo smiled with an edge 
that was lost on the ignorant observer.  "I'm sorry, were we 
interrupting something?"

	The boy frowned.  "Yeah.  Yeah, you were.  We were in the middle 
of a date.  Hope, get away from those losers."

	Duo's smile widened slightly.  "Now, now.  No need to get 
hostile.  We're friends.  Lived across the street from Hope for years."

	Sensing the out, the boy took it, his attitude attempting to go 
from angry to conciliatory.  "Oh, you're neighbors?  Sorry, man.  Didn't 
know.  I mean, can't fault me for getting worried when my girlfriend 
runs into a couple of stranger guys in the middle of the night, right?"

	Emboldened by the presence of her two neighbors, Hope made a 
derisive sound.  "Girlfriend?  Forget it.  It's so totally over."

	He scowled momentarily before smoothing his expression into an 
apology.  "Aw, come on, Hope, baby.  It was just a misunderstanding.  
You don't mean that."

	Hope stepped out from behind the boys to confront her erstwhile 
boyfriend.  "You *hit* me, Jake!" she shouted, pointing at her reddening 
cheek.  "Don't tell me you didn't mean that!"

	"Well, you fuckin' deserved it, you little --"

	In the process of reaching out to her, he was cut off by a hand 
snatching him around the wrist.  The hand was attached to someone 
sporting a very dangerous grin.  "Oh, that was so very much the wrong 
answer, Jake.  How do you expect to win the girls over with a temper 
like that?"

	"Dude, don't touch me!"  Jake jerked his hand away, and Duo let 
it go, because really, what was he going to do with it?

	"The proper answer," Duo continued calmly, "would have been to 
humbly beg an apology.  You'll never, ever do that again.  Mostly 
because you'll never, ever get close enough to her to even consider 
doing it again."

	"Stay out of this, man, whoever the hell you are.  This is 
between me and her."

	Duo took a couple of steps forward, daring the edges of the 
boy's personal space.  "No, it really isn't."

	Jake pushed him.  Moved him only so far as he allowed.  He 
pushed back, making it look so effortless even though Jake went 
stumbling.  Heero looked briefly towards the heavens for a crumb of 
patience.  Duo had that manic, 'go on, do it!' look about him.  Taking 
Hope with him, he backed off a few paces to let Duo have his way with 
the poor lad.

	The idiot did it.  Took a swing that was neatly dodged.  A sweet 
little pivot, a swift sure hand, and the boy was crying out with the 
pain of having his arm twisted behind his back.  Duo got in good and 
close to his ear.  "I don't take kindly to... 'ungentlemanly' behavior.  
Got it?"

	"What th--?  Let go--oaugh!  Shit!"

	Wonderful how just a little bit of pressure in the right places 
could elicit such a response.  "Got it?"  He waited patiently for a 
frustrated nod, then let the boy go, stepping back and out of range.  
"Now shoo."

	If Jake had any intentions of spitting out expletives and 
threats of regretting and paying, they died before they were born.  Duo 
hadn't lost that rather happily violent air, and Heero looking bored and 
somehow lethal didn't help, either.  Jake wisely spluttered some vaguely 
angry things, shot a few dark looks at everyone, then slunk back into 
the shadows where his car was hiding.

	Duo snorted, then turned back towards their damsel in distress.  
"You okay, Hope?"  When she nodded wordlessly, he glanced over his 
shoulder.  Waiting around for the boy to arm himself with a vehicle was 
not a bright idea.  "Come on.  Let's get out of here."

	Once safely around the corner, after listening to the car zip 
down the road in the opposite direction, Duo paid their guest a little 
more attention.  Other than the mark on her face, she looked relatively 
unscathed.  Her clothing, though rumpled, was all where it belonged.  
"You sure you okay, Hope?  Things didn't get too far, did they?"

	She shook her head vigorously before she stopped walking and 
burst out with a nervous laugh.  "Omigod, I am so glad you guys came 
along when you did!  What were you doing there, anyway?"

	"Just out for a jog."

	"Just out... do you know what time it is?"

	He made a show of looking at a watch that wasn't on his wrist, 
then patting down his pockets.  In the meantime, Heero shrugged.  "Nice 
night."

	She stared at the two of them for a while before she finally let 
out a loud sigh of relief.  "Well, whatever the reason, guys... thanks."  
She threw her arms around Duo in a hug.  "Thanks... I don't know what 
might have happened."

	Duo tried to comfort her awkwardly, confidence completely spent.  
She was starting to sound sniffly.  If she started doing the full-blown 
crying thing, or even the good old 'what can I ever do to thank you?' 
thing, he'd... throw her in Heero's direction and make a run for it.  
That was what were partners for.  "Hey, now... um, there, there.  
Nothing happened, right?  It's gonna be okay.  What... Did he want 
something you weren't willing to give?  None of my business, but..."

	She giggled a little hysterically as she pulled back a bit from 
him.  "Yeah... It seems kinda stupid now.  I mean, I guess I could have 
just put out and been done with it rather than causing this whole stupid 
mess..."

	"Hey, don't say things like that.  You don't want it to be that 
way if you don't have to."  And for years, he had sort of assumed that 
it would have been that way for him, that one way or another, it would 
have been... well.  He cast a soft look at Heero, who was keeping a 
sharp eye on their surroundings.  It didn't matter what he used to 
think.  Things would be different now.  "Come on.  It's late.  We should 
get you home."

	She trudged along with them glumly.  "Ugh, tomorrow's gonna be a 
bummer.  I'm sure he's going to go around saying nasty things about me 
to everyone at school."

	Duo shouldn't have been surprised that that was her first 
thought, but he supposed he should be glad that things hadn't gone so 
far that she had other fears to plague her.  "Heh, come on.  You got him 
good.  Knee to the crotch?  He's not gonna own up to that."

	She took a moment out of her brooding to smirk at him.  "Daddy 
taught me a few things."  Her frown quickly returned, though.  "He 
doesn't have to own up to it.  I didn't do him any permanent damage."

	"You will have a bruise, though," Heero offered.  "Don't hide 
it."

	They were all about the same age, but Hope's mind was much more 
in tune with the workings of the teenage rumor mill.  "But I could have 
gotten that any way.  Maybe I was trying to seduce him and he had to 
slap me to get me to stop or something.  Or it was an 'accident'.  God, 
this sucks."

	"Man, I should have bruised him up good," Duo grumbled.

	"Get to school first," Heero advised further, forestalling more 
thoughts of retribution.  A real beating would have caused them trouble 
of their own.  "Be the first to spread the story and undermine the 
gossip.  Tell your friends what happened.  Appeal to those you know will 
be most sympathetic to your cause.  Many of the boys may be on his side, 
simply because they are boys.  They are not important.  Their words mean 
nothing.  Do not let them shame you.  They will press their attack if 
you show signs of weakness.  This boy, Jake, he must have a reputation 
of some sort?  If it was a bad reputation, use it to your advantage.  If 
it was a good reputation... did he have any previous girlfriends?  
Short-term?  They may have had similar experiences.  See if they would 
be willing to join your cause."

	Duo muffled a snicker.  Heero was doling out advice for the high 
school scene based on elementary battle tactics, and it was working out 
surprisingly well.  He coughed, then cut in.  It didn't look like Hope 
was really listening anymore, anyway.  "Feel free to drag us into this 
mess if you have to."  They weren't well-known, but they were known.  
Many of the early families knew them or their work from the 
reconstruction.  Some of the kids around town thought they were pretty 
cool guys, even if it was mostly because the two of them didn't live 
with their parents and didn't have to go to school.  They played a mean 
game of ball, too.  All in all, they had a fairly positive reputation.

	She brightened at his offer, causing him to re-evaluate his 
suggestion from a few different angles.  Aw, crap.  It'd been a while 
since he'd run into any of the girls around town, and he'd forgotten 
that quite a few of them would be delighted at the opportunity to claim 
him and his partner as their white knights.  And if he wasn't mistaken, 
he believed that Hope favored him over Heero, too.  Oh, well.  He could 
take a little fawning for the sake of saving a Hope from the Jakes of 
the world.

	Hope groaned again when they got within sight of their 
respective houses.  The front porch light was on at the Keller 
residence, and illumination also peeked through the front curtains of 
the living room.  "Dad's gonna kill me if he's still awake!  I told him 
I was going over to Lindsay's to do a project.  Think I can still sneak 
in?"

	"Better than him killing Jake because he did something to you," 
Heero responded, though his dry tone was perhaps lost on the girl.  'Old 
man Keller', as Duo typically called him behind his back, was a sharp, 
distrustful guy, a currently single father with a teenaged daughter.  
There was no chance of successfully bypassing his vigilance.

	The curtain in front twitched slightly as they approached, and 
seconds later the front door opened, a glare o'doom greeting them.  Hope 
waved wanly at him.  "Um, hi, Daddy."

	Keller gave her a cursory glance before returning his cold look 
to the boys.  "Hope.  Inside.  Now."

	"But--"

	"Now."  He stepped aside to let her pass.  "And as for you 
boys..."

	Duo put on his friendly, placating face.  "I think we're about 
to have us a little misunderstanding here, Mr. Keller, sir..."

	"How dare you--"

	Hope latched onto her father's arm.  "Dad!  Don't get mad at 
them!  They sa-- helped me!"

	He caught her near slip of the tongue and looked at her more 
carefully.  "What happened?"

	She was reluctant to say.  Glancing nervously back and forth 
between the guys and her father, she finally sighed.  "You were right, 
Daddy.  Jake was a loser."

	The way she turned her face away from him as she answered left 
her reddened cheek exposed to better light.  Keller caught her under the 
chin with an unexpectedly gentle finger and tilted her head further for 
a closer inspection.  "I told you that boy was up to no good," he 
muttered roughly.  "Did he hurt you?"

	Hope shook her head, freeing herself in the process.  "No!  
Just..."  She gestured in the approximate direction of her face before 
gazing adoringly at her saviors.  More at Duo than Heero, truth be told.  
"But then Duo, and Heero showed up and chased him off and then walked me 
home, so don't be mad at them, Daddy, please?"

	Keller looked at her measuringly before turning a silent growl 
towards the boys.  They met it squarely in the eye.  His mouth 
tightened.  "Go to bed, Hope."

	"Daddy..."

	He gave her a brief kiss on the forehead, eyes barely leaving 
his guests.  "Don't think I've forgotten that you were supposed to be 
with Lindsay tonight.  Now go to bed.  We'll talk about it tomorrow."

	She drew breath to say more, but decided to stop while she was 
ahead.  With any luck, by tomorrow her father would have cooled off a 
bit.  She kissed him meekly on the cheek.  "Good night, Daddy."  Then 
she waved her fingers at the guys.  "Bye, guys.  Thanks."

	Clearly not dismissed yet, the pair of former pilots vied 
patiently in a staring contest with Keller as they waited for the girl 
to disappear up the stairs and shut a door.  Once it was clear, Keller 
stepped wordlessly to one side in obvious, though reluctant, invitation.  
They entered.  He shut the door behind them, locked it, turned off the 
porch light, then led them to the kitchen.  When he pointed to the 
chairs at the kitchen table, they sat obediently, though they didn't 
make themselves too comfortable.  This was not a comfortable situation 
at all.

	Keller settled himself gingerly in the seat across from them, 
crossing his arms over his chest sternly.  "What happened?" he asked, 
his voice soft, yet hard.

	As always, Duo was nominated spokesperson for the team, and he 
fulfilled his duty with a casual professionalism.  "We were out for a 
jog.  Yeah, yeah, I know what time it was.  We were out for a jog.  We 
were coming down Sterling Drive when we heard some suspicious sounds, a 
female voice telling someone to let her go, so we headed in that 
direction and saw your daughter heading towards us.  When we met up with 
her, Jake came out after her, cursing.  It looked like he had hit her, 
and that she had kneed him in the groin."

	Keller grunted with brief satisfaction.

	With a faint smirk, Duo continued his report.  "Hope made it 
clear that she wanted nothing more to do with him.  There... was a very 
brief physical encounter between him and me, and then he went away."

	"'A very brief physical encounter'?" their neighbor repeated 
skeptically.

	A shadow of Duo's mad grin returned.  "He didn't believe me when 
I told him that he was going to go away.  I convinced him otherwise."

	"I see."  His tone was no less suspicious.  After another 
thorough scrutiny of the pair, he harrumphed grumpily.  "Out of the pan 
and into the fire," he muttered.

	"Beg your pardon?"

	He glared at them.  "She was saved from one young hooligan by a 
couple of other young hooligans.  My appreciation of your assistance 
starts and ends there."

	"Hooligans."  Well, he hadn't been called one of those for a 
very long time, and he somehow doubted that Heero had ever had the 
pleasure.  He felt Heero's knee bump against his under the table in 
warning.

	Keller stood.  "You helped my daughter.  Thank you.  But that 
doesn't give you any sort of invitation to be the new bad influences in 
her life.  Now, it's late."

	Duo narrowed his eyes at the obvious dismissal as he pushed his 
chair back and started to get up.  "I think we're having another 
misunderstanding here..."

	Heero kept him in his seat with a firm hand to his shoulder.  
This 'misunderstanding' had gone on long enough.  "Just what makes you 
think we're 'hooligans', Mr. Keller?" he asked mildly.

	Obviously displeased with having his authority questioned, 
Keller examined them closely before deciding he had nothing to lose from 
this opportunity to criticize them.  "You don't go to school."

	"We graduated early, before we moved here."

	"We're overachievers," Duo explained blandly when Keller 
displayed doubt.  Heero bumped his knee again, and Duo bumped back, 
uncaring.  Instead, he leaned back in his chair with his hands loose in 
his lap and looked lazy.  "We can show you our papers and everything."

	It wasn't easy to believe, but it wasn't unheard of, especially 
in this post-war era.  Records were lost, families had moved, and many 
people had taken advantage of the disorganization.  It was easier to 
believe that than to believe they were geniuses or something.  Keller 
decided to accept it for now.  "Then how do you support yourselves?"

	"We're independent contractors," Heero answered before Duo 
could.  His partner was a little too willing to go out of his way to 
debunk whatever theories their neighbor already had, and his attitude 
would do little to dispel their 'thug' image.  "We do security work."

	"Security."

	"Security."  They hadn't done nearly as much freelance 
consulting work as they had Preventers work lately, though.  Perhaps 
they needed to modify their cover story.  In retrospect, 'security' in a 
thuggish light could mean that they were bouncers or hitmen or hired 
muscle.  

	All such things had crossed their neighbor's mind.  "For whom, 
exactly?" he pressed.

	Duo let his toe bounce off of Heero's calf, as if to say, 'ha, 
you're doing a crappy job of this explanation thing, and now I'm going 
to have fun sitting back and watching you botch the rest of it.'

	Heero ignored the silent message, tempted to say that their 
client list was confidential, but knowing better.  "We do work for a 
variety of organizations, public and private."  He decided to shift the 
subject before they got too deep into it.  "The world was, 
unfortunately, a good place for us to hone our skills a few years ago."

	He may have been trying to explain subtly that they were highly 
skilled individuals that had gained an unusual amount of experience 
during the years of turbulence by stepping up to the responsibility when 
so much of 'the natural order of things' had been turned upside down.  
He failed.  To Keller, it still sounded decidedly thuggish.  "Few years 
ago, eh?  Perfect time to get caught up in all sorts of unsavory 
things."

	Twitch.  "What sort of unsavory things do you think we're 
involved in?"

	Their neighbor had thought he was being tactful and polite in 
not specifying, but apparently they wanted things spelled out for them.  
Very well.  "You were just out 'for a jog' at midnight.  Now, I don't 
know what you were really doing--"

	"We were jogging."

	"Naturally," Keller scoffed.  "Maybe you were out making 
trouble.  Maybe you were out meeting your dealers.  I don't want to 
know, but--"

	He had just crossed a very big red do-not-cross line.  
"Dealers?!" Duo hissed, considerate enough not to shout it out while 
lunging at him, hands ready for a throttling.  Under the table, Heero 
grabbed his wrist in warning.

	"I know a user when I see one."

	"You're mistaken," Heero answered coolly, squeezing his hand 
until bruises were a possibility, but at least it kept Duo grounded.

	"Don't think I didn't see you that once, coming home in the 
middle of the night.  You could barely walk straight, you were shaking 
so bad."

	Duo remembered.  Fortune just had them coming home from the city 
late after everything had been cleared.  Having to sit around so long 
had driven him batty, and being stuck in a car with nothing but strained 
silence to distract him hadn't helped.  He was so ready to tell the old 
man that he had it all wrong, when he realized quite sourly that he 
couldn't in all honesty deny the accusation.  Dammit, why couldn't the 
guy have accused them of credit card fraud or something?  Duo could have 
had a good laugh at that.  Instead he had to scowl and lock down on 
everything before he exploded with something he would regret.

	Heero took up the challenge instead, his grip on Duo's wrist 
loosening to run comforting lines down his forearm.  "That wasn't what 
it looked like."

	The man snorted.  "I used to work vice, you know.  I know the 
signs.  Withdrawal?  Better than high, I guess.  You keep very irregular 
hours, coming and going at all hours of the night, disappearing for days 
on end.  You don't seem to have any discernable source of income.  Other 
than 'security', of course.  And I've seen those ridiculous motorcycles 
of yours."

	Heero didn't wait for him to go any further.  Clearly there was 
only one way to settle this.  He gave Duo's arm a pat and then leaned 
over to the side to unzip the small bag he had laid on the floor by his 
seat.  In the middle of pushing past towels, he glanced over his 
shoulder at Duo, who was leveling a solemn look at him.  Duo nodded 
minutely after a moment, and Heero resumed his search.

	What did Keller expect to see?  An admission of guilt in the 
form of a relinquished stash?  A threat made plain in a weapon?  
Whatever it was, he certainly didn't expect to see a wallet opened to 
reveal a Preventers identification badge.  It had Yuy's face on it, so 
it had to be his.  He took a few more seconds to try and measure its 
authenticity before returning his suspicious stare to the boys.

	Not above a little talespinning and manipulation of the truth, 
Heero whipped out their other cover story.  "They find our misbegotten 
skills to be useful sometimes."  He paused to let that soak in before 
continuing.  "On the particular night you mentioned, we were finishing 
up some work for them.  There was a bit of an accident that left Duo 
exposed to some narcotic substances."

	"Why would the government be hiring kids like you?"

	"'Kids'.  Narcotics.  You worked vice.  Sometimes there are 
scenes that real agents can't infiltrate."  He watched carefully as 
Keller slowly connected the dots to spell out 'undercover', the obvious 
implication.

	Keller scratched at his chin thoughtfully, eyes shifting between 
the badge and the boys sitting across from him.  It was consistent with 
all of the data...  "So when you said you were out for a jog..."

	"We really were out for a jog," Heero answered wryly.  "We have 
paid membership to use the community center after hours.  We take 
advantage of it often.  We were on our way back."

	"So Jake..."

	He shrugged.  "Nobody.  Just someone we ran into on the way 
home.  If he's involved in something shady, it's nothing to do with us."

	Either they were damn good liars, or they were telling the 
truth.  Someone faking it probably would have come up with a more 
elaborate story, one that reflected popular media.  "You're not on the 
job now?"

	If they were undercover, they certainly wouldn't be telling 
anyone that.  Heero shook his head.

	"And this 'accident' of yours?"

	Since it was his accident, Duo was about to tell the tale, but 
then passed the buck to his partner.  Heero would probably be able to do 
it with fewer words and less bitterness, and he proceeded to do so.  
"There was a drug bust.  After the main seizure, there was a chase 
involving spilled chemicals and insecurely packaged bricks.  Maxwell was 
exposed, and spent a few days recovering."

	"Last month, was it?  I seem to remember something about a drug 
bust in the city... I had a old friend working that case.  Harris may 
have mentioned something about having to work with a couple of upstart 
kids."

	Heero bared his teeth in the semblance of a smile.  "Lieutenant 
Harris?  I remember him.  Never had the chance to meet him face to face, 
though."

	Duo kicked him in the calf again, warning him to behave.  If 
Harris was lucky, they'd never have that chance.  "Harris.  About a 
meter and three quarters?  Eighty-someodd kilos?  Brown eyes, receding 
hairline?  Yeah, I worked with him."

	That was an accurate description, so unless the two had run 
afoul of Harris in some other context, he would have to believe that 
they were the kids in question.  Other than the obligatory insults about 
the young brats, Harris had praised them for something or another.  
Damn.  Keller grit his teeth and tried not to admit that he may have 
been wrong about them.  "That's your idea of 'security', then?"

	Duo rocked back and forth on the back legs of his chair once.  
"Security.  Keeping people safe.  Sure, why not?  Can't exactly go 
around telling people that we save the world or something.  I mean, 
gosh, who'd believe a couple of punks like us?"

	Heero made sure his elbow got his partner glancingly in the side 
as he reclaimed his wallet and slipped it back into the bag.  "I trust 
this misunderstanding has been cleared up now?"

	"Not quite."  As if Keller was going to apologize or something.  
Ha.  So they weren't thugs.  Big deal.  They were still punks with 
badges.  That could be even worse.  "What are your intentions toward my 
daughter?"

	"Huh?"  Now that they had wandered back into less sensitive 
territory, Duo fielded the inquiry.  "Uh, no intentions, really."

	Reacting in his typical manner, Keller glared sourly.  "You have 
no intention of ever taking up with her?"

	"Of course not.  I mean, not that there's anything wrong with 
your daughter," he hastily added.  "She's a great girl.  I'm sure there 
are lots of--  You know, I think I'm just going to stop there.  We 
aren't going to be mean to her.  She's still our neighbor.  But neither 
of us have an interest in her.  End of story."

	Reassuring, the father supposed, though it would do nothing 
towards alleviating Hope's interest in them.  Tonight's little episode 
surely did nothing to improve the situation.  For now, though, he would 
just have to take their word for it.  He could always shoot them later.

	He booted them out a few minutes later.  Their business was 
done, and he had a lot to think about.  And maybe a few calls to make.  
Some stories to verify, some backgrounds to check...

	Back in their own house across the street, Heero and Duo shared 
a tense little laugh when they finally shut the door on the strange, 
twisted world behind them.  "It's been... a different sort of night, 
hasn't it?" Duo sighed, heading up the stairs.

	Following behind him, Heero stopped halfway up and took Duo's 
hand, effectively stopping him as well, and inspected that hand 
carefully.

	Puzzled, Duo watched him for a few moments before the lightbulb 
went off over his head.  He tried to tug his hand back.  "Stop that."

	Heero did stop, but didn't let go of the hand, choosing instead 
to look steadily into Duo's eyes.

	He met the stare without flinching.  "It's fine, Heero.  Nothing 
wrong with it."

	"He's just an old fool who doesn't know anything about you, 
about us."

	He exhaled slowly.  "I know.  It's just not every day that we 
get accused of going out in the late night all the time to go meet our 
dealers in some dark alley somewhere.  Do we look like stoners or 
something?  Geez, I don't even want to know what he thought we were 
doing to support our alleged drug habits.  Did he think we were dealers, 
too?  Or--"  He cut himself off and took another deep breath.  "Can we 
just get cleaned up and go to bed?"

	Heero answered by slinging an arm around his waist and starting 
them up the stairs again.

	Trying to alleviate some tension, Duo bumped him with his hip.  
"And you!"

	"What?"

	"You still holding a grudge against Harris?"

	"Who, me?  Of course not."

	"Liar."



------------
okay, i admit it.  keller has thought they were people of severe 
disrepute for a long time now.  having nothing better to do than being a 
nosy, suspicious neighbor, he has watched the boys and come up with 
theories about them.  i thought that perhaps he would have seen them 
stumbling home from work one night, exhausted and rumpled, and he would 
have assumed they were drunk or high or something.  but then i thought, 
heh, wouldn't it be funny if he were actually right?  and that's what 
inspired the entire drug episode.



_________________________________________
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The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew at myrealbox.com.  This 
has been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 3/20/2005 01:26:46 PST