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"The Heist "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, male/male pairings, language Pairings: 1x2x1 Summary: Duo's planning a robbery, considering a reality TV show, and falling for the man who can lock him up for good. Can his friends help him? Can he help himself? A/N: This story takes place in a universe more
like ours today, where the colonies exist on land, not in space, and
where the world is on the cusp of change. Thanks goes to Waterlily
for her tireless editing and thoughtful suggestions throughout. "The Heist " Chapter 11 - Now You See it... The night before the job would begin, Duo and Heero got together again. After considering and discounting other alternatives one by one- they both had to get up early and be places, and they agreed they didn't like sleazy, or even not so sleazy, motel rooms- Duo invited Heero to stay over at his place. Not without misgivings. Tucking Heero into his tiny, dark apartment sounded cozier than it actually would be, Duo feared, and made the mistake of voicing that concern one time too many. "Stop apologizing," Heero repeated. "I mean it. I don't care what the inside of you place looks like." "You say that now, but just wait." Duo led him along the narrow alleyway that was his shortcut to home. "If it weren't for the restaurant's garbage being here, it wouldn't be so bad. 'Course, then it would cost more and it wouldn't be mine. Heh, heh... This is it." Heero didn't say anything, but he squeezed Duo's hand encouragingly. "Complicated lock." "You bet. I did that myself. See, the downstairs part is for my business. I live above that." "Hi, kitty." Duo turned to see Heero crouched and petting the cat Duo fed. "It's not mine. I just feed it." "If you feed it, it's yours. What's her name?" "Cat. C'mon up." "Is she supposed to come in with us?" Heero asked, letting her glide past his legs. "And that's not a name. Lark is a name." "Lark is a bird and she's a cat and it's okay if she comes along. You hungry, Cat?" "Tiger," Heero supplied. "She has stripes like one." "Tiger? Oh, she'd like that, wouldn't you? Does it make you feel big and ferocious being called Tiger?" Duo caught the door before it slammed shut on them. "Whoa, grab that sack, willya, while I hold the door here?" Heero lifted a sack from the floor before Tiger could shred it and followed Duo up the stairs. "Smells good. You have food delivered?" "Leftovers from the restaurant. One of the perks. Hilde works there a day or two a week, when she's between better jobs. This is her thanking me for getting her onboard with... another job." He had just about blurted out to Heero about the upcoming palace heist. Icy fingers of shock slapped him in the face. Man! "Your friend Hilde has a key?" "Yeah, but only to the outside door. Not to the office or my place upstairs. Prepare yourself." Duo unlocked and flung open the door to his apartment. The hinges creaked in complaint. The apartment was small and dark, as promised. A mattress laden with pillows and blankets lay pushed up against the far wall. Next to it was a box with a jumble of clothes, a leaning clothes tree supporting Duo's suit on a hanger and an assortment of caps, and on the other end of the bed sat another box open-side-down with a lamp on top. Duo strode the three steps it took to cross the room and switched on the light. To the left was a window with drawn shades and a rickety table, where Heero set the bag of food. "Home sweet home." Duo reached into the sack and pulled out a small takeout box. It must have been a familiar activity, because Cat/Tiger let out a loud mew and danced around his legs. "Lemme deal with her first." After politely letting Duo open the container and set it on the floor, Tiger took over consuming the smelly fish. They stood and watched her bolt it down. "What do you do with the rest of the food?" Heero asked. "Eat it? I don't have a way to store it or heat it." Heero seemed to accept that information. "Are you hungry?" "Yeah. Are you?" "I missed dinner." Duo grinned. "Well, pull up a chair, heh, heh." There was none. Heero punched his arm good-naturedly. "Use the mattress, man." Duo did have a couple glasses, one held the pair of spoons, forks and knives, which he emptied and handed over to Heero. "Take these. I'll get some water." He filled a pitcher with fresh water from the bathroom tap. "You have a private bath?" Heero asked. Duo noticed a note of envy in his voice and remembered that Heero shared everything where he lived. "Yeah, and I cleaned it so it's not too gross." "I'd like a place like this for myself," Heero said. "Where I cannot be disturbed when I want peace." "I never thought of this as being particularly want-worthy," Duo admitted. "It is." Heero touched the mattress, a pillow, his glass as it was handed to him. "I know what I want now. During the war, all I wanted was to fight, to win." Duo jumped. He did not want to know the truth. He wanted to be ignorant. He didn't want confirmation that Heero fought for the enemy, which he had to have been in order to have become a member of Sanc's elite guard. If he knew, for sure, then they would still be enemies, because Duo and his friends were still fighting the war. And if Heero knew that, he'd have to arrest Duo and the others; that is, if he could prove their complicity. "Stop!" Duo cried out. "What's wrong?" "Nothing's wrong. Not exactly." "So, inexactly?" Duo smiled like he was meant to. "I missed at least one meal today and I'm hungry and would like to eat while it's still warm." "We could microwave-" "We could if we had a microwave, but I don't. No way to heat food, like I said. So, here, start with this one." Duo handed him a carton, steaming with delicious smells. He felt good about having food to share, a private place to share with Heero; it was the best meal ever partaken of in his modest apartment. "What's this," Heero asked of a forkful of mixed vegetables, cheese, and sauce. "Eggplant Parma-something. It's my fav." "Egg-plant? Sounds awful." He dumped the blob back into the carton, selected another box, and stabbed at something else. And that's how Duo started fork-feeding him. It might have been that he was hungry. It might have been Duo's use of endearments. "C'mon, baby, one taste?" Whatever it was that did the trick, when he said, "Open!" Heero's mouth opened and he took the offering. Duo had made sure to include more than just eggplant. All those Italian herbs and bubbling goodness tasted delicious. Heero smiled and opened his mouth for more. After they polished off the food and drank plenty of water, the overall effect was garlic breath. That may have limited the mouth to mouth kissing somewhat, but as the clothes came off, the mouth attack on exposed body parts became a satisfactory substitute. (o) Duo cracked open his eyes to check the time. 3:45 AM. Thinking the noises that had awakened him were probably from a stray ravaging the garbage in the alley, he rolled over to snuggle into the warm, hard body turned into the wall. Heero. And Cat/Tiger. She had nested between them. No. Those were men's voices he heard! Slowly, Duo crept from the bed to his door, pausing long enough to slip on a pair of jeans. He didn't bother checking at the window. Without a light outside, there was nothing to see. Since Heero had barely moved, he abandoned him to his comfort and sleep, but as he went out of the apartment, he left the door open. If there was trouble, he wouldn't mind Heero at his back, lending him a hand. Duo tiptoed downstairs listening for unwanted activity. He wasn't too worried about getting robbed, the door was the only access at ground level and that was well-secured, but nasty thugs looking for a dark place to hang out had tried breaking down his door once and cost him money in repairs. So far, he hadn't heard anything but voices and the scuffling of shoes. So far. Deciding to take the tough stance, he grabbed a heavy walking stick he stored by the entrance just for that reason and a flashlight and quietly drew back the lock. In a sudden action, he jerked the door wide open and switched on the light. Two wide-eyed, uniformed men blinked. One pulled a gun on him and the other raised a hand palm up. Duo thought the gun-crazy man looked younger than him. The uniforms were perfect matches to Heero's. Not thugs. Guards. "What the fuck are you doing out here at this hour?" Duo demanded. "Looking for someone," answered palm-up guy. "Put away the gun, Stewart." "You got no jurisdiction here," Duo said, keeping the gun in sight until it had been holstered away. "In case you're lost, the palace is a couple miles thataway." Duo pointed with his stick, but tracked the men's movements with the light. He had a bad feeling they were looking for Heero. "People are trying to sleep around here. Go play someplace else." "We have reason to believe one of our officers is here." "He could be hurt!" gun-crazy cried out. "The only one gonna be hurt is you for disturbing the peace. You see anyone lying about here?" Duo asked. "I don't. Now, I'd like to be sleeping-" "It's all right." Heero appeared at his back and the moved around Duo to the forefront. "Mathews, Stewart, what the hell are you doing here? I have the night off. I signed out of the barracks for the night." "We know and we're sorry to disturb you, but the princess had tried calling you, repeatedly. We did show her that you were off the night's roster, but she insisted that we track your phone when you didn't answer." The man looked pained to report this to Heero. Palpable frustration radiated off Heero's lightly dressed body. Heero glared down at his phone, probably, Duo guessed, turning it on and scrolling through messages. The dark eyebrows drew down. "She has no right..." he murmured. It was now nearly four in the morning. Cat/Tiger scooted past Duo and out into the darkness. She was the only one happy to be up and about. The Palace guards shuffled their feet, clearly uncomfortable now that they had located their man, unscathed and definitely displeased to have been bothered. Once Duo heard the deep sigh, he knew Heero was going to have to leave. He knew it was a chance for him to man-up, demonstrate his independence, and show Heero he understood about the demands of jobs. "If ya gotta go, ya gotta go." They exchanged warm looks and that was all. Heero took a moment to tie his shoes before leaving. No kisses. No fond embraces. All business. "I'll see you-" "Yeah, at the party or before. I'm helping Trowa with circus setup." One final terse nod and Heero was gone, the other guards trotting after him like chastised puppies. What an ending to the wonderful night! He choked back emotions threatening to overwhelm him. Would Heero ever again look at him the way he did while loving him? When would he ever feel those lips on his again? God, it was almost too much to take! He stood staring off into the darkness into which he'd last seen Heero, a damp mist condensing on his bangs and chilling his bare chest. "And that's a wrap, as they say in show business," Duo said to no one. He was meeting Trowa in a couple hours and couldn't go back to sleep now, not in his disturbed state of mind, so he grabbed a jacket from his office, locked up, and stalked through the alley short-cut on his way to the 24-hour coffee shop. Some wakeup juice and a roll would help settle his nervous stomach. Once the job was underway, he'd be fine, he knew. It was the apprehension beforehand, going over all the details, checking his lists, which got to him. He really could have used a couple more hours of sleep followed by some stress-relieving, Heero time. That man could give a great blow-job, he mused, but couldn't smile about it. Thinking about Heero just made him sad. With a takeout coffee in hand, he returned home and settled into his "office", where he collected the tools and equipment he would need for the job to come. (o) While he and Heero had been sharing his mattress, the careful loading of the circus train had been underway. And as the two men had snuggled together and drifted off to sleep, the animals had been loaded. Approximately an hour later, the train had begun its trundling progress from the furthest outskirts of Sanc to the inner city. Duo packed more into his small backpack and checked another item off his list. His cell buzzed. "Yo." It was Trowa. "Hey. I'm up and ahead of schedule." "Train is rolling through downtown, passing condos and banks, and we'll be pulling alongside the royal palace of Sanc in five. Hilde made it on time. Anyway, you can meet us. There'll be coffee." "Will do." The Sanc Palace circus performance would take place tomorrow and only that day, but it required one complete day to setup the tents and high wire acts and to let the animals adjust to the new smells. After the show, the circus would shut down, but that only took a few hours, and then it would move on to the next location. There was nothing like the first rosy fingers of dawn caressing the yellow and red circus cars, bringing their brilliance to light, to make Duo's heart beat faster. The excitement of the greatest show on earth was tangible; he could see it as well as feel it! He ran into Hilde, thanked her for the food from the night before, and verified timetables, but that was all. She was helping the circus performers who'd be entertaining passersby on the streets this day, and not have much contact with Duo until later. He sipped another cup of coffee and listened as Trowa delivered instructions to his crew for moving a portion of the train. Other teams were already in action, carrying heavy canvases, cables, and poles. They would spend the day raising the three big tents and erecting high-tension wires for the acrobatic acts. Duo and Trowa would see to it that the selected train cars necessary for moving the heavy bullion were moved onto the side rail by the treasury building. Afterwards, they would care for the animals. In the late afternoon, the two busy burglars would shut down the palace security system and then erect lines for the aerial break-in. Oh, and after that they'd go to the party. Theirs was a busy, busy agenda. "So, what's next?" Duo asked his friend. "Help me unlink the cars and we can ride with the engineer." "What are those guys doing?" Duo pointed out the costumed folks Trowa had been talking with. "They are part of the performers who'll be on the streets around the area, you know, public relations, mimes, shit like that. The plan is to distract attention away from the train near the treasury." "Oh, like Hilde's doing. Gotcha. Oooh! Can I walk around with a lion- or a tiger?" Duo asked. "No." Trowa said no more. The work was carried out according to plan with no glitches. Once the pair got the train cars safely secured by the treasury and the large animals fed and tucked in for their afternoon siestas, Duo and Trowa shared lunch with the other performers, including Trowa's sister, Catherine. Duo was so comfortable, so pleased with his progress, so exhausted from too little sleep and too much stress, that he took a short nap, and when he awoke it was time for the next phase. (o) A Friday afternoon at the transition from spring to summer, a few hours away from the Palace party, and Duo and Trowa, dressed in casual denim and grey to blend into both shadows and other workers, were evading a security camera inside the palace. They let it track them so that they had passed it up before Duo tapped his chest and set off an interference pattern. "Go!" Duo ordered and they sprinted to the stairwell. Up one floor and out a door to a small service room. Duo used his small transceiver to temporarily scramble the security lock on the door. "In!" Once packed inside the room, more of a closet, Duo shut off both signal interrupters and shared a look with Trowa. "Hopefully, if anyone was monitoring that it will just appear to have been a glitch or power blip, but my guess is everyone's more focused on the party preparations and the circus setting up." "One can hope." While Duo held a shrouded flashlight to marginally increase the illumination, Trowa kept an eye on the nearby door to the stairwell. "It's got an alarm on it," Trowa commented. "Everything's got an alarm or camera or motion detector on it," Duo said. "Whoever set this up must know his stuff." God, he hoped it wasn't Heero. Trowa grunted. "Yep. It looks like it's connected to a phone line or some other internal system, rather than a noise alarm." "That's what I think. You learn well, cricket." "Grasshopper." "Some bug." Duo directed the light along the visible wires. "It'll do something somewhere. What we gotta do here is figure out how to shut it down in this half of the building, and insert this line splice device so we can turn it off and on at will." "That all?" Trowa grumbled. They both continued to study the security control box and the lines leading web-like out of it. Duo braced his wrist against the doorjamb of the closet to keep his light beam steady. "I'm ready to give it a try now." "Go'head. I'll keep a watch out." From his pack, Duo took out a length of wire bounded at each end by an alligator clip. In the center of the wire was a plastic box the size of a thumbnail. The first clip he attached quickly to a bolt head jutting from the control box just above a network controller device. Then he thought a while before attaching the other to a screw head to a sensor input module. Nodding in agreement with himself, he took another wire from another pocket, this one with an earphone at one end and flat gadget like the end of a stethoscope at the other. "Listen to this," He told Trowa, handing over the ear piece and delicately placed the gadget end over a thick line exiting the network controller box. "It's humming." "Good. We want that. If it stops, we get the hell outta here, okay?" "Retreat. I can do that," Trowa said. "Still humming." Duo pulled from his backpack a slim wire cutter. "Get ready." Trowa listened intently while keeping an eye on the door. Duo clipped on his forehead lamp, steadied his clipper hand, and snipped a wire. "Still humming." "We like that," Duo whispered. He worked with more confidence. Incoming surveillance signals now traveled down the wires, tripping triggers and sending alerts through Duo's interceptor. Duo's device stripped the alerts, sending continuing "all is well" messages humming down the alarm wires. Trowa inclined his chin. "Humming along." "We're done for now. I'd like to test turning the device off and on, but I don't want to chance getting caught." "You tested the interceptor." Trowa took out the earpiece and rolled up the wire. "If it can't turn the security system off and back on, then what do we do?" "Just keep it off and humming along- and hope Heero or other guard on duty doesn't decide to run some test. Duo ran a hand through his bangs. "Okay, there's not much choice, is there? It either works or not. One test." Duo used his pocket computer to interface with his interceptor device. "Here goes." "I'm ready to run." "Security is... on. Oh, yeah, you can see the systems and sensors and... I can even cut into the cameras. All okay. Now for the trick." Both men locked eyes and held their breaths. "System off." A couple fast heartbeats later Duo drew a deep gasp and said, "It's all go. We are transmitting "a-okay" signals and the "empty room and halls" day-time visual recording cut in seamlessly. Can't test the night-time recording, but that's the margin of error we gotta work with." "It's okay for me." Duo put away his equipment, and then by his muffled flashlight, they went down the iron stairs, closing the roof door behind them. He thanked his friend, Quatre, for obtaining the security information and passing it on. He couldn't have done this part without the help and felt somewhat lighter knowing he hadn't used Heero to get it. Safely away from being caught in situ, they took a moment to smile and stretch the tension out of their shoulders. "You know, for all complicated as it looked at first, I can't get over how low-tech their security system actually turned out to be," Duo said. "It'd be so much harder if we had to intercept a wireless signal." "You sure we don't?" "Pargon complained to Rashid about losing his internet service during the cleaning, because of the new security system being installed, and got invited to vacation with 'Sheed and family. All cables and shit and no wireless hub." "Good. So, ready to test your climbing skills?" Trowa asked. "No, but, let's do it." "It" being both a dangerous task and an annoyance to others, in particular the palace guards, like Heero. In order to carry out the crown jewel robbery to be filmed the next day, they had to set up a web of high tension wires. These would enable Duo to lower himself through a roof opening and several stories down to where the items (false ones, but what did the TV people know?) were on display. What Trowa had informed everyone, including the palace security, was that they'd be setting up for a circus stunt. Although the TV guys wanted to record everything, including how Duo set up for a job, they weren't there that night; Duo hadn't informed them. He did not want to give away any of his secrets, first off. And there was his promise to Trowa not to tape him accidentally, and he certainly didn't want to have cameras creeping in for close ups, making him more nervous that he already was. He suspected he'd have to do some fast talking in the morning to get past the awkward excuses he'd have to make. But there would be so much for the TV guys to do, they would be too busy and have to accept a defeat and film what there was, or miss more of the action. "Hello! Duo! Trowa!" Quatre joined them outside. "I promise just to watch and not get in your way. Is that all right?" "Sure," Trowa said, clearly embarrassed and yet pleased by the attention. "Good!" Quatre said. His was a wholly besotted expression, Duo thought, as he watched Trowa gear up with cables, ropes, and a bag of metal parts. On his back, Trowa hefted a pack of folded metal poles. Against the side of the stone building lay a ladder. Quatre shielded his eyes from the last of the sunset reflected off the glass skylights. "Are you going up far?" "Yes," Trowa told him. "To the top. Or nearly." "You won't fall?" "Hope not. I wouldn't survive a fall. Don't worry so much. I do more dangerous stunts for a living." "I'm sorry," Quatre said, his voice hoarse. "I can't help but worry. I want you safe." "I'll be careful." Trowa reached out and swept the bangs from the bright, blue eyes looking up at him with longing. He swallowed hard and stopped himself from leaning closer. "Stand back." Quatre gave him more room to swing the rope with the wicked-looking hook on it. "Hey there! What's that you're doing?!" The sharp tone caused Trowa to drop his grappling hook and lose his smile, but Duo's face lit with joy. "Heero!" Duo shouted back. "Coming to watch us scale the palace?" "Coming to fuck things up," Trowa grumbled, more to Quatre than to Duo, but well within Duo's hearing. "It's what he does best." "You weren't going to climb the wall to the roof?" Heero demanded of Duo. "We have a permit," Trowa spat out. "Want to see it?" Quatre held on to his arm and kept him from charging the guard. "Duo, would you like to introduce me to your friend?" "Oh! Yeah, Quatre Winner this is Heero Yuy." "I've met Mr. Yuy at the conference guarding Princess Relena." Quatre moved closer. "I've known Duo a long time. It's nice to meet the man he's been talking about-" "-Incessantly," Trowa put in. "-so much lately." Quatre stuck out a hand and waited. Heero shook it politely. "Relena speaks highly of you." "I do too!" Duo remarked. Heero smiled. "And so does Duo." "He didn't believe I knew you, Quat!" Duo exclaimed. "We go way back," Quatre said, shrugging off the glamor people expected him to wear as the president of the Winner Corporation. "Actually, we should let them finish up while there's light," he told Heero. "And give them time to change for the party tonight." If the guard had any other ideas, he dropped them in favor of Quatre's. "There's an easier way," Heero said. He gave Duo's shirt a little tug. "I'll take you to the roof access." Trowa didn't argue. He even allowed Heero to heft a bag of tools for him without complaining. "I'll see you later?" he said to Quatre. "Yes, you will. And I'm standing right here until you are on the ground safe." "You don't have to do that. I meant at the party later." "I know. I don't have to do anything I don't want to," Quatre assured him haughtily and then smiled. Trowa returned a shy smile and shook his head. "A kiss for good luck then?" Quatre asked. Trowa let him wrap an arm around his neck and pull his face down. He let him tip his chin, tilt it just so, and opened his lips on command. He gave in entirely to Quatre's will. Duo suspected that he would have happily jumped off the roof if Quatre had asked him to, he was so completely lovesick. Quatre freed him and he wavered unsteadily on his feet. "Please, take care? A tightrope setup that far up looks very dangerous," Quatre said. "Ah, yeah." Trowa, either deaf, dumb, mute, or all three- he was symptomatic of all three ailments-stumbled after Duo. "Don't worry, Quatre," Duo chirped from some distance away. "He's done this before." Why he said that with so much confidence Duo didn't know. The roof work wasn't going to be a picnic. When Heero stopped at a side door security box, Duo nearly had a panic attack. Had he turned off the security or left it on? He looked to Trowa for help, but that poor guy was too distracted by Quatre's presence to be of any use remembering anything, so Duo took a chance that Heero might notice the flickering LEDs and ask questions and glanced into his pocket at the device. OFF! Shit! He tapped the device and enabled the palace security again. Then he glanced askance at what Heero was doing. Heero calmly applied a code to the side door security box, his attention focused wholly on what he was doing. Duo's hands were shaking and hid them behind his back. Holy Toledo but that was close! "I'll leave this unlocked so you can exit without setting off the alarms," the guard said, and then he led them up a narrow staircase, pushing open a flat trapdoor opening at the top. "This is it." "Cool. Thanks, 'Ro. This speeds up the process great. I'll see you later... at the party, right?" "I'll be there. Be careful." "We will." Duo was glad neither Trowa nor Heero pushed the other off the roof as they switched places. He waved as Heero's dark head disappeared down the opening. When he looked up, Trowa was already straddling an eve and hefting about his tools. "You know, this isn't how the TV guys do it," Duo said. "Fuck them," Trowa said, succinctly. "They rehearse. They go over and over and over what they're gonna do to get it juuuust right." "Well, I just go in and do it right the first time." No sooner had the words tumbled from the acrobat's mouth, than the tools tumbled from one of his hands. Duo launched himself at his friend's nearest limb, an arm, while gripping onto a handle for dear life. The handles were opportunely positioned protuberances for the accessibility of the roof repairmen and, luckily for them, were liberally spotted about the roof ridges. Duo whispered a prayer of thanks for whoever it was who had built them and another to whoever might care to protect them, and then sent one more prayer out there to whoever might be listening, "Help me hold on!"
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