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"Caught in the Crossfire "Written By: Miss Murdered Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters –
am just borrowing to torment for my amusement Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Swearing, yaoi, violence, hints of long
past NCS Pairings: Primarily 3x2, past/presentish 1x2,
past 3x4 and 1x3 Summary: When Trowa's nephew is threatened by
the ruthless father who abandoned him, Trowa needs help in order to
fight back and protect both Catherine and the little boy. Things get
complicated when both Shinigami and the Perfect Soldier come to his
aid as the three men must discover where they stand with each other
while they work out a way to protect Trowa's family. "Caught in the Crossfire " Chapter Five Rendezvous "Trowa, you can relax now." He felt a hand on his own and felt an involuntary twitch of muscles at the feel of Catherine's hand - it was a natural jerky motion that came from not having enough sleep and being too on edge for too many consecutive days. The plane had taken off, the greyish tarmac and general gloominess of Prague had disappeared out of the small window and they had levelled off in the air. Trowa knew, logically, that he should be able to relax now. He had no problems with air travel despite disliking not being in control - he knew that commercial pilots were well trained and he knew the stringent policies for recruitment among airline and space shuttle firms. His anxiety should have abated now they were on board and out of reach for the hour long flight to New Port City's air and shuttle port. It should have. It was unlikely that Nabokov could make any attempt to kidnap Eli on a European Airlines flight - a flight heading for Sanc, and that was what Catherine thought. But Trowa could still think like a terrorist when necessary and now was one of those times. Nabokov could have people aboard and they could just be waiting. Or he could just have a small team hijack the plane and blow it - but then he wanted Trowa and Catherine dead, not Eli and they were working on the assumption that the so called loving and caring father wouldn't want anything to happen to the boy. It was difficult to feel relaxed as Trowa sat in the aisle seat, Catherine next to him and Eli at the window - an attempt to create a barrier, a first line of defence just in case there was anyone with ulterior motives as he spent his time calculating potential targets like he'd not done for years. "Get some sleep," Catherine said gently. "Yeah." He agreed as it was getting frustrating to be in their current situation and the unbelievably close proximity. It seemed Catherine had finally allowed him such luxuries at privacy and space in the past few years, or at least, since her focus of maternal worry was now her son rather than her "little brother" but now they'd been too close for the last few days. In tiny hotel rooms, places without security cameras and were happy to accept cash without another glance, in tiny, dirty cafes, in a series of cars that Trowa had dumped and obtained new ones without a thought for jimmying the lock and hot-wiring them. There were a lot of useful skills he'd learnt as a merc and stealing cars was one of them. He closed his eyes and pushed his head back into the seat rest in an attempt to get comfortable and tried to block out the world around him. Eli was talking quietly alongside Catherine, Leo the imaginatively named stuffed lion was helping him colour in and for the first time in days he sounded like a little boy. Trowa had wanted to make a comment about Leo's, about mobile suits but despite Eli seeing him kill men, steal cars and be on guard at all times, Catherine still thought it was inappropriate for them to talk about Trowa's skills and past in front of the boy. So Leo the lion it was without any references to mobile suits. They'd not brought any toys with them when they'd made their escape from the circus and once in the airport, the security of thousands of cameras and guards and too many people meant he was sure Nabokov couldn't try anything so they had relaxed for a short while. And that gave them an opportunity to treat Eli like the kid he was and let him pick whatever toys he wanted. "The lion, please." Confronted with a wide array of toys, remote controlled and loud and damn noisy things, Eli had picked a stuffed lion and for some reason the choice pained Trowa. He'd never had a home, no belonging except among those merc groups but Eli did. A very unconventional home that moved and a very strange selection of people but the circus had been home. It had been Trowa's home since leaving Quatre behind all those years ago and now they were running far from it all because of Nabokov. He shifted in the airline seat, too small for his tall frame, and tried to sleep. The flight was short but he'd not truly slept since Catherine's scream woke him up in the flimsy tents of the circus so he needed it. He'd stayed awake in the hotel rooms, a gun across his lap and let Catherine and Eli sleep while his own nerves wouldn't let him catch more than a few moments when he could no longer resist the urge to close his eyes. Trowa, like all of the Gundam pilots, could live for days without sleep or little sleep. Catching minutes in cockpits between battles had been a norm. The time aboard Peacemillion had been finding corners to sleep in and taking a few hours when possible between mobile doll attacks. Those memories were sharp and not conducive to sleep so he tried to forget being aboard Peacemillion, when he and Quatre had something - when he'd walked through the Gundam hanger to hear noises from Deathscythe Hell's cockpit and became aware enough of whatever was going on between Heero and Duo was happening as he could hear moans, groans and muffled voices through an open Gundam hatch. A feeling had rose in his stomach at hearing those noises - knowing that he and Heero had once... but that was a long time ago, Trowa thought now. A lot had happened since then, the relationship between himself and Quatre that had failed. Heero and Duo had walked away from one another. Heero walking into the circus after that holding all the possessions he'd taken from the life he'd formed with Duo in a backpack and wanting something that Trowa could never give him. And they'd kissed hard and it had meant something and nothing at the same time. It was so long since those days. He'd not seen Heero for eight years. Duo for longer. Not been the five of them since last time he'd been in Sanc. The circus didn't go to Sanc - the permits and restrictive laws on travelling entertainment and fees meant that Ring Master avoided the Kingdom so it felt strange, odd, to be travelling towards it. The beacon of peace and hope - rebuilt and renewed. The last time he'd been in Sanc, there had been some reunion event, a year after the Eve War and they'd stayed at the apartment that they would be heading towards once they landed. It had made Trowa raise an eyebrow when he'd seen the rendezvous location - a familiar address on a familiar street. It surprised him that Duo still owned the apartment that he had shared with Heero when they'd settled down and first worked for the Preventers. It seemed like holding onto a life that was now long gone - a life they could've had. Trowa had eliminated all ties to Quatre. Didn't answer calls, changed his number, dedicated the rest of his life to the circus and the performances, the maintenance of the jeeps and trucks, the animals and forgot the past. As he moved in his seat, looking cautiously around the cabin through one green eye open to a slit, he realised he'd never quite forgotten. That night had shown the cracks between the five of them. He and Quatre had barely spoken to each other. Duo had got drunk and annoyed Heero. Wufei had wisely decided to avoid their squabbles - already starting to distance himself before his big statement that he did not wanted to be reminded about the war and was off to teach at a university in Beijing. And Trowa remembered being in the spare room of Heero and Duo's apartment, alone and drunk as Quatre had spent all the event being the social butterfly, networking and showing Trowa that he had outgrown him - that he did not need him. So Trowa had stood at the corner of the room and steadily drank more of the passing champagne until it was decided they all needed to leave and he went to bed thinking how Quatre had changed. How they had changed. How they weren't the same boys that had fought a war. Quatre had needed him in the war, big blue eyes pleading and asking him to make him forget the blood and the bodies and his guilt. He'd responded - raining kisses over jaw and soft skin and running fingers through blond hair. And it was ironic or something that Quatre begged Trowa to make him forget when it was he who did forget. But then, he was left on the bed in the dark spare room, listening, and being talked about and he knew Duo was drunker than he was but was not in bed yet. Or maybe he was a different kind of drunk. Not sombre. Not even more silent. And there was that argument between the three awake former pilots and he heard those words. "You gotta tell him, Quatre! You can't just keep him around while you're meant to be marrying some chick! It ain't fucking fair." He'd sat up the darkness, his head swimming as he did so, and thought about getting up and saying something - he'd known that Quatre was getting pressure from the family and the company. Knew it but didn't realise it was that strong or that maybe Quatre had consented to something. Maybe creating distance to make it easier, to make the final break easier but somehow even lying in a darkened room, alone, it didn't feel easier. The voices decreased in volume and he could hear the more muffled sound of a deeper voice - Heero's but then a voice increased in volume again. "Don't shit around! I'd die if Heero left me!" The words were melodramatic and he didn't hear much else. His body clock told him ten minutes passed when Quatre finally opened the door to the darkened room, light hitting the bed but he turned and pretended to sleep and listened to the rumblings of whatever argument between Heero and Duo was going on in the room next door. "Trowa?" He'd heard Quatre speak, quiet, concerned - like the boy that he'd maybe, stupidly, fallen in love with during a war but he'd remained silent and kept his breathing quiet. Done this as a child, making sure that some of the men thought he was sleeping so that they would leave him alone and it deceived even the empath. He heard clothing being shed in the darkness, the suit, dropping to the floor and the sudden depression in the bed of another body laying down but Quatre didn't move towards him like he had in the past - proof again that Trowa had fulfilled his purpose and they slept at opposite sides of the bed as much space between them as possible. They heard the argument stop in the other room, other noises replacing those - creaking of the bed, quiet grunts and moans as though there was an attempt to think of the guests on the other side of the wall who slept in the same bed but were so far apart from one another. They'd not lasted long after that. A few months but Trowa knew that he was better to walk away. Return to Catherine. And Heero and Duo hadn't lasted much longer either. All far too young and far too damaged by wars and violence to work out. "Ladies and gentleman, we are beginning our descent into New Port City, so please secure all seat belts and replace all tray tables to their upright positions. Thank you for flying European Air." The announcement over the system brought him back entirely to the present. They weren't those boys pretending to be men anymore - they were men, ten years since the last war and there was something more serious going on than the complicated relationships they'd had with each other. Trowa stirred in his seat which alerted Catherine to the fact he was awake, not that he'd really slept, only drifted on the edges and thought about the past. Eli was staring out of the small window, explaining to the lion how they were landing as the first sight of New Port City appeared from the window. "Did you sleep?" "Yeah." It was better to lie to her and say he had. She'd only start telling him he shouldn't drive when they landed and he sure as hell was not going to use a cab or let Catherine drive. He'd drive. There was no giving away control now. Her hand gripped his forearm and he met her eyes fully. "We'll be safe in Sanc?" He nodded in an attempt to be reassuring. He didn't think they'd truly be safe in Sanc but Duo was back up and two former Gundam pilots would be better than one. The only way he saw them being safe was if Nabokov was dead and he didn't need to tell Catherine his thoughts on that. He'd talk to Duo. Someone with a more flexible view on morality. Someone like him. Catherine didn't need to know his thoughts - the thoughts of ending a man's life with his bare hands - things he hadn't done for years until those mercs as he'd thought he'd left those things behind. "And we can trust Duo?" Catherine asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "You barely know him." Trowa frowned. He hadn't contemplated whether he actually trusted Duo. He just assumed he did. It was true that they didn't know each other well but that didn't matter. He was a Gundam pilot. Quatre had trusted him. Heero had been his lover. Those two he had trusted so he went along with their judgement of the former Deathscythe pilot. He thought shrugging would be an unwelcome gesture so he just spoke quietly. "Yeah." This seemed enough for Catherine who turned back towards Eli and leaving Trowa to think as the plane began its final descent. Duo had come through for them without question - arranged the meeting in Prague, got the plane tickets, the fake IDs, the rental car on the other side and done more than he should, given up his own life, whatever the hell his current occupation was, and was willing to help. He had to trust Duo. Because if he didn't... there was no one but him to protect Eli. The landing was smooth and thankfully the passengers who took this flight were hardened travellers rather than tourists. There was no clapping at the smooth landing - Trowa had never understood why people did that - it was the pilot's job, therefore, they were competent. They didn't need clapping for performing such a simple task - it wasn't like a circus performance which was for entertainment. Trowa grabbed their belongings from the overhead lockers and made them wait for a while as other travellers departed so that he could see any suspicious activity though the waiting made Catherine impatient and Eli even more so. Finally, they left the plane and entered the airport, travelling through customs and immigration with little hassle, pretending they were a family. They carried only hand luggage with them to avoid the trauma of luggage conveyer belts. They'd dumped everything prior to boarding that was unnecessary including Trowa's gun and knife - he felt naked without them, more vulnerable than ever without a weapon but he knew that Duo would have weapons - if his occupation wasn't legal, access to firearms was a given. His skin prickled as they walked through and Trowa had the distinct impression they were being observed but it could be paranoia - the paranoia of a man without enough sleep. Catherine was right in some ways. It was not good for him to be like this. Wired. Living off adrenaline and caffeine. The rental car line wasn't as easy as customs and immigration, the staff slow and rude, testing Trowa's patience and his anxiety level. Catherine ended up having to speak because Trowa was sure he may have tried to kill the guy behind the counter, grab him by his cheap white collared shirt and strangle him with his own tie. Mercifully, the drive wasn't long to the apartment complex, centrally located, supposed to be convenient to the Preventer Field Office and the government buildings. They pulled up, the building old and red brick, rebuilt and remodelled into an apartment complex after the whole rebuilding of the Kingdom project and Trowa saw the figure waiting, leaning against the wall, casual and easily missed. His clothing predominantly black apart from the white collar of his jacket, the braid was pushed down the back of that jacket so that the distinctive feature was not visible and for all the world he looked completely unremarkable. A young man casually leaning against a wall minding his own business. But he wasn't. Trowa knew that. Duo nodded and another man slipped from the shadows, unfamiliar as Duo walked towards the car, motioning that they should get out rather than park up. Trowa pressed the button to open the windows and Duo leaned in to speak. "I gotta guy to clean the car and taking it back so you guys just need to get inside, 'kay?" Clean the car. It probably meant taking the prints off it or it could mean torching it for all Trowa knew - that would effectively remove any traces of DNA or identity. He supposed all the ID documentation he'd used to collect the car had been entirely falsified so that it shouldn't trace back so he nodded, getting out and handing the keys to a young man who took them without any words to Trowa but he did look back at Duo. "Half before the job. Half after. You know the fucking rules - Cypher told ya when you took the job." His voice had been quiet, quiet enough that Catherine hadn't heard as she fussed over getting Eli out of the car along with Leo and the little amounts of possessions they had. Trowa would have to warn Duo about a hell of a lot - no mentioning the war, no swearing and don't bring up the more serious side of Nabokov. But it would have to wait as Trowa wanted to be inside, feeling exposed even in the heart of the world's most famous pacifist nation and heading into the home of two former terrorists. Eli looked cautiously at Duo and seemed unwilling to move, clutching onto Catherine as the rental car pulled away. It was true that Eli wasn't the most outgoing of kids but it was unusual for him to act so clingy to Catherine. "Hey, you must Eli." Duo seemed to know something about kids. Knelt down on the side walk so that he wasn't as tall in comparison, less adult and less intimidating, a reassuringly wide smile on his face. "I'm Duo... your Uncle Trowa told me a lot about you." It wasn't a lie, exactly, but really only Trowa had told him was that Eli was five and his dad was a uncaring and dangerous bastard but it seemed to work a little as Eli glanced towards Trowa who nodded to confirm Duo's story and show that the strange man could be trusted. He supposed it was a well-founded fear of strangers since the kidnap attempt. "You're gonna stay with me for a while and I'm gonna help out your Uncle Tro'. That okay?" The boy looked at his mother who gave him a smile. "Okay," the boy said finally. "Cool! I'm sure I got some toys and some cartoons or something in the apartment, you wanna see?" Eli nodded with more enthusiasm and held Leo tight. "Then follow me to the grand tour of the Casa del Maxwell!" The grand tour was nothing more than arriving at the third floor to a pretty standard but bare apartment. Two bedrooms. The only thing that betrayed the situation was a desk set up in the living area with two laptops showing security feeds from locations both within and outside the apartment. It was high end gear as Trowa could barely see the cameras despite being able to determine the angles from the images on the screens. Duo had shown Catherine and Eli to the master bedroom, leaving Trowa to lean against a grey couch and not be assaulted by the memory of the last time he was in the place. Couldn't imagine what it was like to be Duo and have so many memories here... "You look like shit Tro'," Duo said, as he'd returned minus Eli and Catherine. "Thanks," he responded, dryly. "Well, you know me, brutal honesty and all." In his tired state, Trowa had no response but couldn't help a small smile curving his lips - over eight years since he'd seen Duo in the flesh and this was their first conversation face to face. There was something funny about it if he thought about it but right now he was too damned tired. "Take the spare room," Duo continued. "Get some sleep before you fucking crash. I got this. Ain't anyone getting through me." Finally, Trowa agreed to sleep, reassured that with Duo here there was another line of defence for Eli and he could finally try and get some rest.
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