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"Lasting Impressions"Written By: Dragonmistress_7 Disclaimer: I don't own the Gundam Wing Boys.
Lasting Impressions
Chapter 6 Heero stood impatiently outside the shuttle, scrubbing
his hands through his hair. He was definitely ready to be off this
rock and back in space, particularly since he'd made two unscheduled
stops already and would have to make a third. He sighed, resigned.
Things The technician that had been so reluctant to look at his navigation system could now hardly be pulled away. The man had poked, examined and tinkered for hours on end, until his wife had come looking for him. She'd had words with Heero, like it was his fault, and dragged her husband away by the ear. A few hours later, though, the man was back, explaining that she'd finally fallen asleep. Now Heero was just waiting for him to get off the shuttle
so he could take off. Duo was already aboard, learning one of the
Bard stories from Hilde. Trowa and Quatre had retired to their bunk
for a private conversation, the former looking in the pink of health,
and the latter not far behind. Heero had asked where he could drop
them off, but the Ryunan had given him a wheedling smile and asked
couldn't they stay on a while, since they seemed to be going the same
Heero had his doubts, despite what he had told Hilde before, but found himself merely shrugging. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to believe those two would be a danger to him unless he gave them a reason to be. They were in some ways fierce, to be sure, but they seemed to have compassion for those who were not their enemies. At last the technician was walking toward him, and Heero shook himself out of his thoughts. He listened carefully to the advice he was given. For all the man's annoying obsessions, he knew what he was talking about. He reiterated his advice about stopping on Earth, and though he had tried to think of ways to get around it, Heero knew he was right. When Heero boarded, Duo abandoned his place beside Hilde to follow him to the cockpit. Heero sat in the pilot's seat, but then gestured at the control panel and crossed his arms expectantly. Duo grinned, dropping into the other seat and going through the start-up flawlessly. Heero smiled a little to himself. Duo would have made one hell of a pilot, in a different life where he didn't have to be bound forever to a complete stranger. He had the love of it, and Heero didn't think it was just his own presence. When they were safely in space, Heero went to take a nap, as he'd missed out on most of the previous night's sleep working with the technician. When he woke, about an hour and a half later, he found the others all gathered in the small mess area across from the kitchen. Hilde was sewing some torn stitching on a shirt, Quatre was reading a book he recognized as his own, and Duo was juggling apples while Trowa looked on. "I didn't know you could juggle, Duo," he said, more to announce his presence than any interest in Duo's juggling. "Oh, sure. They taught me all sorts of odd and end things back home. You never know what people will like." Which probably meant that at some point in the past, someone had made some unusual demands of their made-to-order lover. Idly, Duo tossed the fruit to Trowa. To his surprise, the Ansirian caught all four of them and kept them going without missing a beat. He went through several patterns with an almost bored _expression before requesting that Duo toss in two more. Only then did he even look like he was marginally concentrating. Heero almost missed it, but he saw a wide-eyed Duo snap around his head to look at Quatre. Moving his own gaze, he wondered for a moment what Duo was concerned about. Quatre hadn't moved. He was even still looking down at the book. But his knuckles were clenching it, and there was a tightness around his mouth, gone in the blink of an eye, that said that something was amiss. Trowa caught the mood, too, for he tossed the apples back to Duo, save the last one, which he bit into speculatively. "Is this from Earth? It's very good." Quatre looked up and seemed to smile a little in spite of himself. "May I try it? I know how odd your tastes run, but occasionally you come across something edible." The moment had passed, but that it had ever been only served to remind Heero that he knew virtually nothing about any of his traveling companions. They all had their secrets, and they held them close, or thought they did, anyway. Heero had never liked not knowing what was going on around him, but he would keep his word and not ask. It was their right not to tell him if they didn't want to. The stars knew, he had a few secrets of his own.
Duo felt like a child again in a thousand uncomfortable ways as he carefully locked the door behind him. He'd grown used to the feeling, though. He hadn't been allowed to be a child in so many ways, but in others, he hadn't been allowed to grow up. He felt now that he was doing his growing up fast. Looking for something to stand on, he removed a tiny camera, just the size of a water droplet, from his pocket. Holding the portable monitor in one hand so he could see which way the camera pointed, he mounted it just inside the air vent in the roof. As he climbed down, he felt a twinge of guilt, but it burned away like mist in the heat of his anger. He wasn't sure why it bothered him so that Heero had told the others of his engagement, but he knew it had something do with Hilde's puzzled, speculative look when she'd offered him congratulations, and the suspicion on Quatre's face when he hadn't been forthcoming about his bride, even when asked directly. Washing the traces of dust off his hands and making sure he hadn't left any footprints on the toilet, Duo exited the bathroom. Heero was standing outside, towel and change of clothes in hand. "It's all yours." Heading back to his bunk, Duo closed and locked the door, leaving a message saying that he was lying down. True enough. He stretched out on the bunk and pulled out his monitor. On it was Heero, naked to the waist and pulling off his pants, but with his back to the camera. Even this was enough to confirm that his body was long, lean, and muscular, though. His shoulders whispered strength with every movement, and his arms were even more defined than Duo had thought. Duo's eyes continued the rest of the way down Heero's revealed body, with appropriate appreciation. He shook himself. He already had a pretty good idea what Heero's body looked like. He wasn't spying on Heero simply to ogle him. Of course, it would help to know exactly what he was looking for. Something that was… vague, niggling in his mind. He wasn't sure what the question was, but he was certain the answer was Heero. Guilt blossomed again, when he suddenly remembered that some humans had nudity taboos. Oops. He sincerely hoped Heero wasn't one of them. This whole spying thing was bad enough without him intruding into something Heero would be embarrassed about. Not that he could even picture Heero being embarrassed. Still, he shut off the monitor. The cockpit would be a good place to put another camera, and the mess area, though that one might be tricky. He thought about removing the one in the bathroom, but decided not to, at least until he found out one way or another about that taboo thing. Duo's finger was on the power switch before he even realized he wanted to turn the monitor back on. He pulled it away quickly and stowed the monitor before he could be tempted again. Picking up a book randomly from a pile of those he wanted to read, he got up and headed for the mess area, almost unaware that he had taken two more cameras from his bag and shoved them in a small inner pocket on his pants. tbc.. |
