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Sand Castles	By : kracken Category: Gundam Wing/AC > Yaoi - Male/Male > Heero/Duo Views: 2255 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I don't make any money off of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Sand Castles
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 1
- 2
He couldn't square his memory of Duo, not even six months earlier, with this more, subdued, unsmiling, man who stood off to one side, head tipped down to hide his face behind the rim of a Preventer cap. No one had warned Heero that something had happened. Why should they? He doubted that anyone had ever guessed that he actually cared about Duo Maxwell.

Wu Fei was talking, filling Heero in on their latest mission, mind hard on facts and totally absent on anything physical. At no time did he pause and say what Heero hoped, that nothing had happened on their last attempt to eradicate a nest of terrorists, and that Duo was fine, under the weather, but unaffected by anything tragic in his life. Instead, Heero stood in the hanger, freezing, while transports towered around them, and Duo remained as still as stone, hands jammed into jacket pockets while Wu Fei finished up his stream of very correct information.

Wu Fei was filled out more, but was essentially the same as when they had fought in the war. A bundle of hot temper, controlled by force of will and regulations, he had been a great asset to Preventers. He had made it his permanent employer, while the rest of them had chosen more independent pursuits. They came in when needed, but essentially lived lives of semi retirement. He was at home in his crisp, khaki Preventer uniform, blue star patches marking him a captain of special forces. His long black hair had been braided, slicked back and straight as an arrow, in tradition Chinese fashion. A curved sword still hung at his side.

Duo was a stark contrast. He wore solid black, from head to toe, and had allowed only his face to remain uncovered. His jacket was overlarge, the collar high and strapped by buckles. His boots were military grade. The gloves on his hands were a special ops wet dream, padded on key areas, yet thin on others where sensitivity was needed. They seemed molded to fit him. His Preventer badges were hung at his jacket hem, their photos showing Heero the man he remembered; a Hawaiian shirt, an impish grin, and sparkling eyes as he mugged for the camera. Only his hair remained unchanged, a startlingly long length of three and half foot braid. That braid swung like a heavy chain as they turned and left the hanger, Wu Fei taking them into Preventer proper for their meeting with Commander Une.

"I look forward to working with you again," Heero said, meaning Duo, but unsurprised that Wu Fei replied and Duo only gave him a half glance and said nothing.

"I value your level of expertise," Wu Fei said."I still haven't found a team that reaches the level of successes that we do when we work together on missions."

Dry, boring. Heero suppressed a yawn. He studied Duo as they walked, but the man seemed intent on the floor passing under his boots. Heero could see some profile; a mouth set into a hard line and his jaw clenched.

"May I ask where you've been working?" Wu Fei asked. "You took yourself off call for six months. I imagined that you had a serious mission to accomplish outside of Preventer channels."

"At the beach," Heero replied. "Making sand castles."

Wu Fei looked back, startled, but said nothing when he realized that Heero was watching for only one reaction. Duo didn't even crack a smile. The old Duo would have giving Heero a wide smile and a comment of , "Nice tan.", or "I bet they were military grade castles." Not even getting a slight acknowledgement was almost pain.

They took an elevator upward and Heero stood as close to Duo as he could. Taking an imperceptible deep breath, he smelled leather, detergent from Duo's clothes, and a bit of masculine sweat that let him know that the warmer Preventer building wasn't going to induce Duo to unzip his jacket or even open the collar. Heero didn't smell healing wounds or telltale antiseptic. The man wasn't hiding injuries. Weapons?

As they exited the elevator, Heero hung back enough to watch Duo move. Yes, he was definitely armed and dangerous. There was a leashed tension in his movements. He was under stress. It was an odd contrast to his visual mood. Depression seemed to hang about him like a cloud as dark as his clothing.

The conference room was intimate, meant for smaller meetings. The warm wood of the oval table and the comfortable chairs, almost made it look like someone's dinning room kitchen. Pictures of Preventer teams lined the walls, as if Commander Une were a proud mother showing off her children.

Heero could almost feel Wu Fei's contempt for a woman's obvious touch in the decor as he took the seat nearest where Une had her briefs waiting for her. Heero took the chair on her other side and Duo managed to put several chairs between them as he slumped and transferred his gaze to some unseen spot on the table.

Une, herself, entered, looking hurried. She looked older, Heero thought, and pared down. Too thin. Her hair, pulled back into a tight bun, had hints of premature gray. She gave them all a polite nod, before sitting down and sorting through her briefs. "Good to see you, again, Special Agent Yuy. Thank you for agreeing to join this mission."

"Agent Chang has already told me that the last mission against these terrorists was a disaster," Heero replied, deciding to cut through the formalities. He needed more information.

Une nodded and slid a palm computer over to him. Heero read the mission report and frowned sharply. "A spy inside Preventer?"

"Working for nearly a year in that very unit," Une said angrily. "Everything checked out. His back ground was impeccable. Nothing hinted at the fact that he was not, in fact, the man that he was claiming to be." She slid another brief to Heero. "San Marco. That's all we know about him, beside his reputation as a master under cover operative. He worked for the foundation during the war. Even I didn't have access to his real name or identity. When he was needed, code was sent through untraceable channels detailing his missions. He was one hundred percent successful."

"Was he successful this time as well?" Heero wanted to know as he studied the picture of a square jawed, good looking man, who had brown eyes and an easy smile. He didn't look like a killer. He looked like someone that you would trust with your children.

"Completely successful," Une replied in a clipped tone.

"How do we know that it was this... San Marco?"

There was a few moments of silence and then Duo said, very tightly, "He told me."

Heero studied the rim of Duo's hat, longing to see the man's expression. "Was he selling information or setting up for a terrorist strike?" Heero asked instead of the longed for, "Are you all right?" that he wanted to ask, Duo.

"Information," Une replied. "He's working very closely with this particular terrorist cell. They were ready for us when we attacked their operation. We lost five agents before we were forced to withdraw. They were able to deflect all of our weapons, even long range ones, and escape. It took months to track them down again on L2. We suspect that they still have operatives planet side and that their new L2 location is a decoy."

"What's the source of this information?" Heero wanted to know, worried about reliability.

"I am," Duo replied.

"Where did you get your information?" Heero wondered.

"He told me. San Marco," Duo replied.

Heero didn't bother to attempt to puzzle that out. "You had contact when you attacked the terrorist cell?"

"There were circumstances, Yuy, that-" Une began, but Duo cut her off angrily.

"I'll tell him! It's not a secret that you can keep, Commander," Duo snapped. He took a deep breath and then his eyes appeared under the rim of his hat as he tried to meet Heero's eyes. They were shadowed, pained, and acutely embarrassed. "We were lovers for almost a year, up until the attack on the terrorist cell. We worked together. Lived together. I thought..." He made a strangled laugh that was unpleasant. "I thought that I was going to marry the guy. He was perfect. Fucking perfect. When he told me.... Well, he didn't think that I was going to survive to let anyone know his big secret. You don't think a guy is going to manage to get out of the way of a pulse rifle aimed at his ass, especially after you beat the shit out of him for kicks with the butt end, and have him down for the count."

From the look on Duo's face, Heero was almost certain that aimed at his ass was literal.

"Seems he wasn't really gay," Duo muttered, almost to himself. "He really hated doing me all of that time."

"Shit," Heero whispered.

"Yeah, pretty much," Duo ground out and then hid his eyes again. "So I'm the screw up, here. It's my fault that agents died and the mission was fucked. I couldn't tell that I was in bed with a terrorist mole."

"A few more psych meetings will help you lose that misconception, Maxwell," Une sighed, as if she had heard his self flagellation more than a few times. "From all reports and observations, no one managed to pierce his disguise. Everyone was duped."

"I'm supposed to be better than everyone else," Duo retorted, but then he was silent, hands locked together on the tabletop.

It was hard to go on after that revelation. Heero felt anger,sadness, and an overwhelming need to reach out and comfort Duo. His hand balled into a fist rather than reach out to close the space between them, though. Duo had made it clear, after the end of the war, how it stood between them. "It takes more than mutual sexual orientation, to make the relationship rocket launch." Duo had said flippantly, after Heero had revealed why Relena wasn't going to have a happily ever after with him. "Mine's certainly not taking off."

Those words of rejection had kept Heero distant, had allowed another man to take what he would have given anything to have had.That man had launched a relationship rocket with Duo and then had betrayed him in the worst way. As Une outlined their next mission, Heero could only think of finding the man and taking a terrible retribution on Duo's behalf.

"Your thoughts?" Une prompted.

"I need to go over the info," Heero replied, without admitting that he hadn't heard the last five minutes of her briefing. He wasn't worried about that. The briefing was just an over view. He would get a much more thorough information dump when they entered into strategy meetings.

"Sleep off your jet lag, and put your flip flops away, Yuy," Une said irritably. "I expect you to be sharp and on task tomorrow."

"Will do," Heero replied.

She looked from Heero to Duo and then pursed her lips as she stood up and gathered together her briefs."Chang, with me."

"Yes, commander," Wu Fei responded and stood as well. "9:00 AM, agents, in the war room."

"Oh, I'll be there," Duo replied as if he were chewing glass.

Heero only nodded and didn't watch Une and Wu Fei leave. His eyes were on Duo.

"Go ahead," Duo told him bitterly. "Get it out of your system. We won't have time, tomorrow."

Heero searched for the right words. It was hard when he was only seeing the brim of Duo's hat. He followed the threads of the Preventer logo, there, and then said, finally, "I would give anything..." he swallowed, faltered, and then tried again. "I wish that you had... wanted me, instead of him. I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have ever betrayed your trust, Duo."

Duo looked up, then, eyes dark pools of violet, full of pain and anguish. "What?"

He had expected blame, curses, maybe even a declaration that Heero wouldn't work with him. Heero could see it in his expression. He could also see a deadness, a 'too late', a part of Duo that was gone, maybe never to return.

"A light should shine in someone's eyes, when they look at you," Relena had told him. "It tells you whether someone really loves you. I've never seen that in your eyes, Heero, unless you're looking at Duo."

Duo's light had been stamped out. The flat, distrustful regard, the disbelief that was apparent in every line of his expression, had taken it's place.

Heero took a shuddering breath as he stood and made his way to the door, almost blind with emotion. "I could kill that man," he muttered, and meant it at that moment.

Duo said something, but Heero didn't want to hear rejection, didn't want the speech that would stick the knife in his heart yet again. Their rocket was never going to launch. He needed to accept that, yet again, lock down his emotions, and get his head into the mission.
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Sand Castles