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"The Pet Project Series "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, shounen-ai, rated for language and
suggestiveness Pairings: 1x2,3x4,5x6 Summary: The GW boys use pets for matchmaking purposes. In this last story, Duo and friends deliver Quatre and Trowa a well-intended Christmas gift, the kind that keeps on giving. A/N: This is for Waterlily's birthday, she who
is the master of Wufei/Zechs pairings. Thanks for editing, Snowdragon! "The Pet Project Series " Part 2 Cats Up In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this. ~Terry Pratchett Dogs have owners, cats have staff. ~Author Unknown
"You take it," Trowa said, pushing the furball into his friend's arms. "I'm late as it is. Still have some presents to buy, too." Heero flinched, nearly dropping the young cat. "What do you expect me to do about this? There's no place for a cat here." He hadn't begun to buy gifts for his two friends that had everything. "No," Trowa flicked the tag dangling from the animal's collar, "but you can surely chase down its owner, Oh Great Preventer-Agent Yuy." His motorcycle's engine had been left running, so he made an immediate escape, cutting off all further debate. Heero watched him exit the agency parking lot, snapping on his helmet before signaling for a turn-right, to Winner Corporation headquarters. "Hey!" Heero detached the claws digging through his jacket and made a note that cats hated noisy motorcycles. "Don't think I asked for this either." Maybe a new muffler for the eardrum puncturing hog would count as a Christmas gift if he wrapped it in a red ribbon? One present down. "Hey, Yuy! Fur collar? Nice look for you!" If his hard glare didn't silence further audible comment, his stiff retreating back would, Heero hoped, as he marched directly to his office. He closed the door, detaching the animal, and set the trembling cat on his desk. His jacket was bristling with short grey and long, white hairs. He had to rid himself of the animal. Shouldn't take too long; it had an ID. "DUO? Your name's Duo? What kind of a name is that for a cat? Unless you are half of a pair... Maybe you have a twin." Heero flipped the tag over and placed a call to the number scored into the metal. On the fourth ring an answering machine picked up. "Hello! I'm not able to-" The same voice only slightly breathless cut in. "Hi! You still there?" "Yes. This is Agent Yuy of the Preventers. Am I speaking to the owner of 'DUO'?" There was a long quiet on the other end, where Heero could only hear the sound of heavy breathing coming under control. "Owner?" I am talking to an idiot, Heero thought, losing patience. "I have a lost cat with an ID giving the name 'DUO' and this number. Are you the cat's owner?" "Oh, yeah. That's Racky. How'dya get her? I've been looking all over." "The tag says 'DUO', not-" whatever the man just said that sounded like a cough. "It says just 'Duo'." While keeping the other man on the line, Heero clicked into the agency's locating software to zero in on an address. With luck, he could deliver the cat and be back at his desk before Commander Une sought him out for a new assignment. "Heh, heh, yeah. Duo's my name. The cat's Racky. She's a Maine Coon-with papers." "She's a stray cat, no papers." There, got it! Heero recognized the very nice neighborhood; his friend Trowa lived there with his main squeeze, Quatre Winner, of the Winner Corporation fame. Duo? What kind of a name is that for a man? "She doesn't carry her ancestral lineage papers around with her, geez." Those kinds of papers. "You live in Highland Park?" "Uh, why?" Total idiot. "I can deliver you your cat immediately. At your home." "Really?" Yes! "If you'd rather, we could meet downtown some-" "No, no, that's okay. Preventer agent?" "Yes. Agent Yuy. I'll be there in... 15 minutes. Do you have a coded gate?" MEOW! "Is that her? Hi, Racky!" He talks to cats. Heero had run out of patience. "Security gate?" "Oh, yeah, there is. You sure know your stuff. Listen, I'll meet you at the gate, 'kay?" "Yes. Goodbye, ah, Duo." "That's right. Duo Maxwell. Thanks. Later, dude." Dude? Heero made a face at the slight to his title and cut the call. He pushed the cat out of his face and typed a vague "On delivery operation. Mission ready in one hour" message on his duty entry. That would give him time to complete his last report, too. Ready, except, now that he needed the animal, she'd gone into hiding. "Where did you go?" Swish. Skitter, skitter. A paw shot out from under the desk and smacked a wad of paper, sending it skittering across the bare wood floor. Heero grabbed his empty wastebasket, calculated the beast's trajectory then, "There!" trapped her. He left his office, cat-in-basket tucked close to his chest by one arm. Not one holiday decoration in sight. Commander Une's orders wiped all holidays off the calendar, including the decorations. Just as well. Heero hadn't much to celebrate, already volunteering to work so others could have Christmas day off with their families. First things first. Heero carried his stray to the canine unit desk and collected an all-metal, small-animal carrier. "Claw that all you want." He flashed the animal a canine-rich smile and pushed her in. "Would you like a brush down?" the desk clerk asked him. "What?" Heero'd been hit upon before, but that was a new line. A confusing one, too. Besides, with that timid smile the woman didn't look bold enough to have meant anything improper. "I'm Cindy. The dogs shed so I keep a lint brush in the drawer." Excellent. Cindy's no-nonsense attitude pleased Heero. He reached for the tool. "Yes, so do cats, apparently. I can take care of myself. Thanks." Cat caged. Suit up to standards. Heero felt properly prepared to successfully accomplish the mission ahead. "Is there anything else, agent?" "Yes, you can return this wastebasket to my office." Heero jotted the number on the clerk's notepad, smiled, and left. "Please." "Just for you." This time the tone of voice and teasing wink left nothing to his imagination. "Hn." He'd loaded his grunt with enough displeasure as he had time for-he had energy and inclination to say much more, but why bother telling her to piss off and mind her own business? He didn't go out for fun. With anyone. He hadn't the patience or the desire to be appealing date material. This hadn't made him a happy man, but he wasn't bothered by his single condition either, he told himself. He could do what he wanted, when he wanted, and without consideration to someone else's needs. Unlike Trowa, his friend who once was a free and easy-going guy and was now at his boyfriend's beck and call. He'd even bought a living tree to decorate costing ten times the price of a cut one so that he didn't "kill a poor innocent pine". Heero smiled, wondering what sensitive Quatre would think if he knew how many trees his boyfriend had chopped down while camping the summer before? That had been fun. He and Trowa had had lots of good times together, but then Trowa met Quatre and now he was tied down tight as a sail in a storm and Heero hadn't had a vacation since. Commitment is not for me. The drive took ten minutes. Had he slowed to enjoy the scenic turnouts or the colorful, and sometimes ostentatious holiday light displays, as he climbed the to the mountain top estates, he would have taken longer; he had a time-table to abide by. To get to his friend's house he had only to turn left. He drove straight, the street climbing a little higher. A little more exclusive and expensive. And stopped when the road dead-ended at the gate. No Duo. There was a wreath, obviously handmade by someone in a rush and with more heart than talent, hanging off center with a tattered bow, but no cat owner eager to take delivery of his feline companion. "Where the hell are you?" he grumbled under his breath. Heero turned off the engine and got out of his car. He took the cat carrier out and placed it on the hood. And waited. On closer observation, the wreath was more of an animal feeder with decorations consisting of half-eaten fruit, "Indian" corn, and pressed seed snacks showing signs of having been gnawed, pecked, and attacked repeatedly. Lovely decoration. Actually more to his taste than most. Heero Yuy was first-class at shooting, running down bad guys, and not losing his concentration. He was not especially accomplished at waiting, so he tested the gate. Yes, it was locked securely and expensively enough that he restrained his temptation to break it. He could break the steel reinforced lock, if he'd wanted to. He checked his watch. Five more minutes. If he left in five minutes he'd have no trouble making it back to his office before the commander called for him. Where had the damned Duo character gone to--- whoa?! His attention diverted to movement at the side of the house. There on a second floor balcony stood a figure flipping yards of heavy, damp hair over the railing and, apparently, brushing it out. More interesting, it was a man doing this. A naked one. Lean but not thin, cut like a swimmer with great shoulders and long legs, but not tall. An extraordinarily attractive man about his own age, he guessed, but with so much hair. So long. Mist rose of the volumes of damp hair in the chilly winter air. Hot, fresh, and clean from his morning shower. Heero stopped his hand from twitching and ran it through his untidy mop. How disappointing! He was itching to bury his hands in those beautiful, steaming locks. For a moment, and only a moment, Heero considered collecting his binoculars from the glove compartment of his car, but a cloud moved and the sun rays pierced the tree canopy. Oh, God...waves and waves of chestnut-colored hair so incredibly long and the sun angle hit it just so the beautiful man appeared outlined in gilt. Haloed. Like an angel. No. No angel put on a provocative display like that. Totally masculine, but gorgeous. If only he had a camera-but he did! Heero dashed back to the car, opened the door, and twisted the interior, attached camcorder around. The camera's image wouldn't do the beautiful figure justice. He cranked up the sun-kissed image and brought the man into focus. Show your face! But the head was turned and the hair nearly everywhere. Good God, his cock looked fantastic, though! He rubbed a hand over his own growing bulge under his slacks, rearranging the goods and enjoying the show. He licked his lips then gasped in surprise when his watch chimed "Time to go." He cursed "Duo" under his breath and rang his number. The siren on the balcony went into the house, ending that reason for living for the time being, and sending the notion that he just might meet a creature like that sometime back into the recesses of his mind where his fantasies played out to an audience of one unfilled man. "Yo. Duo here." The low voice agitated his brain back to attention. "This is Agent Yuy with your cat. You told me you'd be at the gate." "My spy-guy? Already? Man, time flies. Okay, I'm on my way right now." The voice changed as Heero imagined the man running through a labyrinth to the front door. "Clothes-" Heero wondered if this "Duo" was the father of the seraph on the balcony, or the lover. They could just be friends. Yeah, sure. Heero didn't think he could be "just friends" with a guy that looked like that, a shocking fact. He hadn't felt that way about another person before, man or woman. Not. At. All. "-around the corner past the table I always hit with my hip. Gotta bruise there from last time. Why I don't move it I don't know. I do move my hips; I meant the table, heh, heh. I'm heading out the door," came the voice on the other end of the phone still chattering away with a play-by-play of his trip through the house. "--in fact, I see you." Heero observed a man in baggy sweats and hoodie pulled up over his head hop down the porch stairs, and then jog his way, kicking up a flurry of dry leaves. Duo Maxwell. This scruffy character didn't deserve the long-haired man-sylph he'd seen. Heero lifted the animal carrier from the car, preparing to hand it over at once. He'd have to take the curves a bit too fast and run, but he could still, would still enter the building and pass security, which would show up on his commander's duty roster updates, and be nearly as good as actually being at his desk. What was important was giving Une no reasons to question his activities. "Lost pets" should not be under his job description jurisdiction. Thwarting drug dealers, impeding smugglers, offing assassins-stopping the bad guys-was. Heero wanted to avoid the uncomfortable probes, like, "Why the cat?" And for an instant his unruly mind imagined an intrusive, but welcome probe of another sort all together. Open the gate. "Meow!" "Racky!" The pet owner snatched the cage out of Heero's hands and unlatched the door. The grey and white ball of fluff stretched a paw past the opening to test the new surface, air. "I've gotcha now. Wow, I can't believe Preventer's does this kind of thing. What service!" "We don't normally." And that was when he should have just turned and left. He would have had the warm feeling of having helped his fellow man and the "vision on the balcony" seared into his mind to fuel his dreams for evermore. "Well, cool. I haven't been here long and she escaped the house." The guy kissed the fur and laughed. "It was like losing my best friend for a day." What about the unforgettable creature I saw brushing his hair and wrapped in golden sunshine? "She was in good hands." Why Heero felt it necessary to tell him all this, he didn't know. "A neighbor of yours found her on his doorstep yesterday. He's good with animals and would have kept her, except for the tag." "Yeah, I put that on her the minute she became mine. Maine Coon cat, like I said. So, can you tell me who found her? I'd like to thank him, too. Wouldn't do me no harm to meet someone around here. Place is pretty remote." The place was the top of the hill. The entire hilltop. His nearest neighbors were--? Heero squinted through the trees to get his bearings. Trowa and Quatre's back yard? Heero turned back, his eyes landing on the handsome face staring back. Blue eyes peeking through a fringe of brown hair, and a smile. "Actually, he's a friend of mine, both he and his, ah, partner... companion." And then he suddenly didn't want to introduce his friends. No, that wasn't quite the truth. He didn't want to share this man with his friends, but he wasn't sure why he'd felt that way. "I got gay neighbors? Cool. I thought I only had rich old fogies." He fondled his cat who seemed content to snuggle in his arms. Heero thought she was glaring accusingly at him and was thankful cats couldn't talk. It wouldn't do for "Racky" to complain about his cold treatment. That might ruin this meeting. "And thank you for the tip-top service, heh, heh. Hey, wanna come in for coffee? I gotta pot and some doughnuts, come to think of it." "That would be--." His watch beeped. OUT OF TIME! He'd barely make it if Une was late today. She could be. "Oh, no, no... I didn't mean it that way!" "What are you talking about?" "Doughnuts... cops..? I really would like to--." "I'm not a 'cop'," Heero snapped with more anger than he'd meant to send the other man's way. "Enjoy your day." "Oh? Oh, the beeping was your urgent call, huh? Secret agent stuff and all. Well, bye." The car engine roared to life, spoiling the tranquility. He rammed it into gear, spun the wheel and sent loose rocks flying from the spinning tires. Five minutes. Using a false ID he'd created to slip past the security system he'd helped design, Heero ghosted into Preventer's headquarters to hide behind his office door. He hated doing that. It would only work if his commander wasn't on the hunt for him and no one analyzed the security tapes. If he would somehow get caught, the explanation phase would be so much worse for him, going something like this in his mind: "I was hiding the fact that I took a lost cat to its owner as a favor to a friend. Yes, I do have a heart, but prefer to conceal that under the heading "professionalism." Yes, I used Preventers' facilities and I did it on company time, and I'm aware of the regulations forbidding-- No, my report isn't done--" Mortifying. But it wasn't. As it turned out, Commander Une had taken the morning off for a dentist appointment. He had time to kill. He completed his last report and mailed it to Une, running it through his nifty black-market time-stamper to back-tag it so it appeared he submitted it at eight AM. Not really necessary, but it would appear more normal a time for him to have been done with it. More cover-up but Heero liked things completed as fully as possible. Of course, thinking back to that hour brought him around to recalling the dreamlike, mystery man with the yards of hair and the pale skin glowing in the early rays. What would it feel like to run his fingers over that body, caress that smooth skin, and smother his face in those silky strands? His office vidphone blinked in the most annoying fashion. "Vid on. What?" he barked at the device. The chief of security's face appeared and for a gnat's breath of time he felt the horror of discovery. "Agent Yuy, the desk is holding an incoming call. The man is asking for you by name but has no established ID or knowledge of Preventer protocol-" Heero broke in, "Did he identify himself?" "Yes, sir. Duo Maxwell's what he says." Him? Again? What now? What could he want now? Heero decided to rid himself of the parasite himself. An attractive parasite, but anyone who could remotely get under his skin would be a danger to his carefully controlled universe. "Patch him in. I'll take care of this. Thank you." "As you say-" Duo's face appeared, looking peeved. "I just wanna talk to the dude, not date his brother, er, sister or whatever. Geez." The hoodie was still there, but it had been unzipped to partway, revealing a dark red t-shirt underneath. It really highlighted those inflamed cheeks. "Mr. Maxwell. This is Agent Yuy. Why are you calling?" Best get to the point immediately. "Heero! Good to see you, man. You wouldn't believe how hard a time I got trying to reach you. You really are a secret agent, huh?" "Some of the time. Why have you called?" To the point. "Why? Oh, to see those pretty blue eyes again, heh, heh...yeah. Um, I need a favor." Parasite, just as he'd supposed. "No." "Ah, c'mon, dude. You haven't even heard me out." "I have to go. Don't call me again." Point made. "It's Racky!" "What is?" "Why I called, geez, just give me a minute. 'Kay?" "Fifty-nine, fifty-eight-" "You are one hard-assed cop." "I'm NOT a cop." "So you say. Maybe I'll try the fire department where the guys are brawnier anyway." "Thirty seconds." "All right! She's upatreeandsoamI. I'mstuck!" He waved around his cellphone aiming the camera at the cat on a branch, and in a sickening swirl of green blur, the ground below, and in a nauseating magic carpet ride back up to what could have been a leg straddling a tree limb, then back to his stricken face. "Get it? I can't get down!" "You got up. Just climb down the way you got up." "You're not very observant for a super, secret agent. I showed you the ground. Look again." "I never said-" Ugh the blur... "See that? That is the branch that broke when I put my weight on it. Now do you get it? I AM STUCK. It's about twenty degrees cooler than is comfortable and about forty feet higher than is safe. I'm really all about terra firma beneath my feet, if you get my drift? And, ah, shit, shit, shit--!" "What now?!" "Battery's about-" The screen was blank and dark. The image gone. Heero could go back to work. Instead, he was buttoning his uniform jacket, grabbing a spare leather coat from the rack, since Duo's lips looked a tad blue for the cold, and heading out of his office. He didn't even bother leaving a note knowing he'd be back within the hour. Tops. He checked out a van used for local infiltration jobs. Unmarked and loaded with ladders, pipes, and plumbing fittings, it would be perfect for this job. Ladder to tree, assist man and cat to ground, and then leave. Mission accomplished. Taking one of the curves on two wheels, Heero thought he could have simply left the man hanging, and smiled at his own joke. Maybe get another glimpse of the unworldly man with the lustrous hair. "The idiot didn't even turn his security back on after I left," he grumbled. "Good thing. Saves breaking in." "Hey! Up here! What took you so long? You brought a ladder? Good thinking. Oooh, it's my knight in shining leather." "Shut up, will you, and put that on. The leather's for you. I'll take-" The cat clawed at Heero's outstretched hand and his yanked it back. "Okay, you hold on to that animal and I'll help you down." "I can climb a ladder. I'm not that worthless. I just couldn't scale a tree trunk. What's the matter now?" The matter was a thick rope of hair which had snaked out and hit Heero in the face. How much hair did it take to make a braid this thick and long? Images of the beautiful man on the balcony played out in his mind. Could it be him? Of course it was! Speaking of idiots... "Sorry 'bout the braid. Really, sorry. It always is getting in the way at the worst times. There. All tucked away. I wear a baseball cap in summer that does the trick, but this hood's worthless, ya know?" "You could use a knit cap. There's one in the leather coat pocket. I used it the other night." "You did? Here it is. Yeah, this is warm, but the hair still whips around." Whips-- imagine it whipping his skin... "But it would be okay if I wasn't hanging upside down, wouldn't it?" "Put your foot here." Heero placed the tottering man's left shoe solidly on a rung. Noticing that he had both hands gripping the ladder and not the cat, he asked, "Where's the cat?" "In the jacket." He twisted around and took two steps down nearly shoving his backside into Heero's face. "See?" Heero didn't have to imagine. He could remember exactly what the man's ass looked like naked, because he was certain his vision of perfection and this...man... were one and the same. "The cat. You are admiring the cat!" Heero's eyes rose in a flash of blue to see that, indeed, a furry little face was peering between the red shirt and the black leather coat, and that a pair of needle-sharp little claws had punctured the shiny material. Losing a hairball's worth of fur to the interior of his jacket. "Get her down before she ruins my coat." Among other things. "I'm not the one holding up this rescue." Heero was. He just about slid down the rest of the way he moved so fast. "There we go," Duo said, talking to his cat. "All safe and all again. Ugh, don't claw that! Uh, that nipple will never be the same again. C'mon, I'll show you 'round." Heero, without putting away the Preventer's ladder, locking the van, or thinking beyond the words 'nipple' and 'come', trailed after the man, watching the braid swing to and fro and bob up and down on the man's ass. Did he live here alone? Why? The mysteries surrounding Duo Maxwell intrigued him. A case worth opening and exploring. He had at least another hour to spare, studying him. "So, I'll bet you're wondering how I got a place like this to live in, huh?" "It crossed my mind." As did more immediately important things. "Since you're a super spy guy..." Duo paused and flashed a teasing grin Heero's way. "You'll probably figure it all out anyway so I'll just save you the trouble." "Thanks." Heero couldn't remember smiling so much at anyone else before, but it spread across his face all on its own. "When the Maxwell orphanage burned down, I was the only survivor-" "You're THAT Maxwell?" "Sure am." That was accompanied by a smug smile. "I had to prove it with blood and guts, I gotta tell you. Letting them draw blood for all those DNA tests took some guts, heh, heh. Anyway, it took me years to find out that they'd done a head count of the remains and discovered I'd gone missing. I, ah, I'm not boring you, am I? I tend to rattle on when I'm, ah... at times." "I make you nervous?" Heero found the blush resulting from that tactless revelation to be charming, especially since he'd been the cause. "I'm trustworthy, and, no, I'm not bored. Who called for the DNA tests?" "I'm getting there. Um... The case was put on the back burner until it got stirred up again when the Winner Corporation wanted to buy and develop this estate. Apparently, it was part of the Maxwell holdings, the folks funding the orphanage, ya know?" Heero nodded to encourage the other man to tell more. "Right, so, as it turned out, they were rather well off and apparently they'd died leaving the estate and all the insurance money from the orphanage to the last survivor, which was me, but I didn't know it." "How did you find out?" "My best friend, ah, works for Winner corp. Real high up there in it and all and he and I had been buddies back in our clubbing hey-day-ah, it's in the past." Duo had his head turned away so Heero couldn't see his expression, but obviously he was hiding something. Heero didn't mind a well-textured past, though, and added to the other man's character sketch. "Clubs are loud and not my thing," he thought to share. Duo smiled. "I'll remember that." "So this clubbing friend helped you, how?" "Oh, well, when he read about the estate in some company paper, he put me and it together and arranged the DNA testing. After that, it was all pretty much an easy road to here, 'cept for the pile-up of lawyers wanting to get their greedy hands on as much of the money as they could." "But you won." "You bet. I wanna give you the tour, 'kay?" "Okay." "Super. I can tell you about how I'm gonna turn this place into a real fine home for orphans next. Interested?" "Very much." Once the front door closed, two well-dressed young men crawled out from under the shrubbery. "Finally!" said the taller one. "I thought he'd never go in," said the blond one. "I thought he'd figure things out when he found the gate open." "Your best friend is thick-skulled and in denial." "Well, sweetheart, if your old buddy from your wild-and-crazy days put on his performance out front, like I'd suggested, and not way out on that blessed balcony where no one could make out who he was, Heero'd have never left the first time." "Maybe so, but Duo's not that much of an exhibitionist. I just hope Duo can explain knowing me and all without giving away how much of a setup this all was." "Heero'll figure it out, probably, but I doubt he'll care after they hit it off." "Let's hope. Oh, Trowa, I'm all dirty. See the knees? My nice worsted slacks are ruined." "No, they aren't, pet. We'll send them out for cleaning and they'll be as good as new, or you can wear them out for gardening." "I don't garden!" "You could take it up. Anyway, I'm glad we don't have to figure out some other bone-head scheme to get them together." "Are you calling my ideas 'bone-headed'? Shows what you know! You, who said it couldn't be done when I fixed up Wufei with Zechs Merquise! And now they share that lovely dachshund you wanted to find a happy home for." "I apologize. You are right. You're brilliant. Now, let's go in and change you out of those clothes." "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you just want to get me naked." "You know me inside and out." "Not so much of the inside." Quatre looked him over speculatively. "We could play 'presents under the Christmas tree'." "At your pleasure, my little hidden treasure. Look there's a tree over there!" "I didn't mean outside! You are not undressing me here! It's cold and unhygienic." "In the house it is, then. Only a meadow to cross." "Wet grass and all. We'd best hurry before one of them comes storming out of the house over some stupid insult to their dignity." "I'm like the wind at your back." "Trowa?" "Blowing..." "Trowa!" (o)
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