| Building A New Life 3 It didn’t take them long to realize that getting Ph.D.’s was going to be really difficult. There were so many requirements that they had just whipped by on Earth that they weren’t going to get away with here in the Colonies. Duo spent several hours figuring out what degrees they had and which one’s were really honorary. Heero spent an equal amount of time going over their school records for how many hours they had, what levels they were and what the actual grades were. It was looking fairly good. Duo grumbled, he wasn’t sure why Quatre was obsessed with a bunch of Ph.D.’s Most of the men with them were pure researchers. Most of the ‘real world’ work was done by people with Masters or Bachelors degrees. He really didn’t want to write a Doctoral thesis. It was way too much work. They both needed to get into the field as soon as they could. “Heero, I don’t think this is going to work. We need to get to work, not be fucking around, writing papers. I’ve got one or two done. But I don’t see us getting the paper Quatre wants us to.” Heero looked up from his computer and nodded. “Me neither. I think we can get away with Masters. You know, it’s all about respect. Most of the people on Earth really don’t get it. They were fairly far away from most of the fighting. Here in space it was always right in their faces.” Duo stretched, then winced. “I don’t want to think about it any more. I want to take a walk.” “I’ll get the chair. What grav do you want?” “Forty percent? Can I do that?” Heero consulted his notes. “Yeah, you’re ready to move up if you want. I’d like to see you move a bit more quickly. I’ll take you by the doctor’s office on our way. I want him to look at your scar, see if it’s healing like it should. Wanna take Binky?” Duo smiled at the little dog, who was sacked out on her little bed. “No, poor thing’s worn out. But she really loved all the attention. This petting thing is really helping everyone. I hate to take her away when we leave.” Heero shrugged. “We should do something about getting more dogs up here. And maybe some cats too. There’s plenty in shelters, just going to waste. I’ll check.” “Ok. After my walk. I’ll help you. Maybe I could get in touch with the Colonial leaders and find out why there’s no dogs here. Maybe there’s a law or something. Oh, and speaking of law. Wufei’s a judge? How’s that work?” Heero shook his head. “No idea. You could ask him. As to the dogs. I think it’s a good idea for you to find out why there aren’t any. I didn’t think of there being a law or something. I’ll see about getting some anyway while you see about the law. Now, off to the doctor.” Duo grumbled a bit but let Heero put him into the chair so they could go see him. They talked idly as they travelled along the corridor. Duo was feeling stronger and a bit restless in his chair. He was ready to be well. Heero poked him on the shoulder. “No.” “Fuck.” “Sorry, but you’re not well enough yet.” “I know. But ... I wanna be. I’m bored. I’m tired of lifting weights and stuff. I need inspiration.” “You need patience. That’s what.” “Just about out of that. Quatre wants us to spend weeks testing for ... fucking paper. I don’t think paper is what we need. We need rep, street cred, not papers. If it ain’t paper money it ain’t worth shit.” Heero nodded. “I think you’re right. We’re headed right for the same trap we fell into on Earth. Instead of making people accept us for who and what we are, we’re standing around like little boy’s waiting for recognition. That may be one of the reasons Quatre is having trouble.” “Could be.” “I think he needs to do one of two things. Either tell everyone, I’m the boss, you’re not. Or he needs to just give up, let his sisters have it and move on.” “You know he’s not going to do that. He’s got it into his head that he’s got to run WEI. Daddy wanted it. Sucks. Boy’s going to run himself ragged over it.” “I think you’re right. We should do something about it.” “You’re right, but what?” “I’m not sure, I’ll think about it.” . Duo finished redressing himself while the doctor consulted his notes. The man wouldn’t say anything until he read the entire chart again. For the third time. Duo wondered if the man really remembered who he was at all. “Well, I keep trying to figure out how you’re doing this. You’ve healed twice as fast as you should have. It just doesn’t make sense. There’s some tests that I’d like to run. Science shouldn’t be denied...” Duo took the chart out of the man’s hand, pointed to his name, occupation and part of the medical information. “Look! Maxwell, Duo. Gundam Pilot. Received stem cells from Yuy, Heero. Packed stem cells. So back off. You’re not running one more test. You’ll sign off on me and let me out of this mess. Heero’ll see to it that I do the proper exercises, even if I wouldn’t do them on my own. I’m way too busy to mess with this shit. Get yourself together. Ok?” The doctor looked at the information that Duo had pointed out and rubbed his chin. “I looked at that but it still doesn’t make sense. I’d like to run those tests just to see what’s going on. They won’t take more than ... oh, four or five days. Um ... gun?” Duo winked over the gunsight. “Yup, gun. You’re not listening to me. I said no. What part of N and O didn’t you understand?” “Well, I don’t think you’re being very cooperative.” “Uh ... nope! Now sign the paper like a nice little physician.” The doctor signed the paper, protesting all the while. Duo just took the paper and headed for the door. He still needed his chair, his legs were still weak, but he wasn’t coming back to this place again. He’d take care of himself, the doctor was way too busy trying to get him under a microscope. He wondered if the man was holding up his release because of it. Duo knew that he still needed to be careful and listen to his therapists. Heero had made a surprisingly good therapist, he checked with the supervisor almost obsessively. So Duo gave his release to Heero with a grin that nearly split his face. “Here, read it and ... no weep, the opposite of that. I hope.” Heero grinned and read. “Ok, so what’s the real deal? Something, I can tell by the look in your eyes.” Duo just gave Heero the bare bones of the story which was enough to make him snarl. Duo just patted his arm and said, “Well, never mind him. If he gets to be too much of a problem, we’ll just complain to management ... and Q. Now, I want to get back on my feet ASAP, but without hurting myself. So what’s first.” Heero shook his head. “First, I give you an exam.” Duo gave a crow of laughter. “A real one, you ass. Then I step up your training as far as you can stand. You’ll be sore every night. But I want you back in top form PDQ.” “M-Kay. That’s a go. I’m tired of this. So why did we put off the real deal so long.” Heero bopped Duo on the back of the head. “Because I wanted to make sure that you are really healed before I put a lot of stress on your back. Idiot.” But his smile was loving so Duo just rubbed the back of his head, wincing broadly. “Drama queen.” “Who me? What makes you think that?” “Oh, I donno. That phony face just now? Nah!” They laughed together and headed for the gym. Heero revamping Duo’s exercise routine as they went. . When they entered the gym, there was a new man on the desk. Duo sighed, the turnaround here was impossible. He wondered what was going on behind the scenes. He noticed that a lot of the positions seemed to be manned by new people. Duo hoped the nice Jim was ok. “Maxwell, Duo. I just got released by my physician but I’m still going to have to do therapy for a while. Look up the records, will you?” “Sure. I don’t know, should I read up on you or just let your personal trainer do his job. Got a note here that says not to get too involved with your work outs.” The man looked a bit puzzled by that. Duo shook his head. “Don’t know what that’s about. I swear we don’t bite. Heero’s over there, checking out my machine. But this will probably be the last day I’m here. I’m moving up to 40%. Heero says I’m ready.” The man finally made the connection that had been nagging at the back of his mind. “Heero? Maxwell? Oh, shit! You’re two of the Gundam pilots. Holy fuck!” Duo winced, the man’s voice had gone shrill and was carrying all over the room. A few people looked up, but then went back to their workouts. Heero was looming up behind Duo in a second. Heero’s glare made the man gulp. “Will you keep your voice down? We don’t need a bunch of sight seers hanging around. You have a name? Or do you answer to dumb fuck?” Duo smacked Heero on the chest with the back of his hand. “Heero! Be nice. He was just surprised, right?” Duo glanced at the man. “And you do have a name, don’t you? You’re supposed to be wearing a badge.” “Sorry, sorry. I forgot it. My name is Sam.” “What happened to Jim?” “He moved up a floor. We move around a bit so we don’t get used to the same gravity all the time. Especially at the lower ones. Um... I’ll just stay out of the way, why don’t I? I’m sure you know what you’re doing.” Heero snorted and tugged at Duo to head him toward a machine. Duo looked back at Sam, who still had a very red face. He felt a bit sorry for the man, but wished he’d not been quite so loud. Now nearly everyone in the room was sneaking glances at him. It made him feel really uncomfortable. He knew that, with his braid and amethyst eyes, he stood out in a crowd, but he was good at avoiding attention. Having this many people know who he was and staring at him made his skin crawl. He wished they’d quit. “Duo, pay attention!” Duo apologised and turned his attention to Heero. “I’ve got you set up for a full routine. Don’t force yourself. You’re not running from Oz so I don’t want you hurting yourself, but I want to find out how your levels are progressing. If you’ve reached the proper point, we’ll move to the next grav level. Different gym too.” Duo nodded and grimly set himself to finish his routine in the recommended time and with his vitals at the levels that would mean that he could move on. Heero smiled behind his back, he knew Duo. . “Ok, that’s it. Let me check your pulse and respiration.” Heero clipped a small monitor to Duo’s ear to check his blood oxygen and sugar levels. He counted pulse and respiration simultaneously. Someone who could keep track of three different radios as well as all the visuals in a Gundam cockpit had no trouble doing that, as well as conversing. “Blood’s good, plenty of oxy, sugar’s a bit low, respiration good, pulse great. You’re good to go. We’ll sign in at the next level on Friday. Let’s blow this pop stand.” Duo grinned, whooped and punched the air, when he checked out at sixty percent grav he could dump the chair completely. He was leaving it stationed at one end of the mall and walking to the other end, leaning on Heero’s arm. Heero would then go back for his chair. He still had to stop to rest at least once and more often twice but he knew it was working out well. He felt more and more like himself every day. “Great. Let’s go to the mall. I want a treat. Ice cream, ok? It’s good for me. It’s got milk in it, right? And we can jack in at the net café and see if we can’t find out more about the dogs and stuff.” “Ok, Duo, that’s a good idea. I’ll check the statutes for prohibitions. I don’t remember reading about any, but it’s a good idea to check before we make a lot of plans. We’ll also have to figure out how to finance this. First, we make sure it’s possible.” They headed for the mall, Duo in his chair, Heero striding along beside him, glaring at anyone who dared to move too slowly to get out of their way. It didn’t hurt that Duo had a rather high BTU glare of his own. One he reserved for anyone who dared glare back at Heero. They settled at a table and Duo grumbled, “I really don’t like this. I hate leaving my chair. Someone could do something to it. Don’t know why they would but ... just gives me the creeps.” Heero shrugged. “Well, what do you suggest we do with it?” A man walking by just butted in on the conversation. It wasn’t that uncommon on the station. “What’s the problem? Can I help?” Duo just sighed. “You could give it a try. I’m supposed to walk. But I can’t make it all the way across the mall at full-g. It takes a while, then Heero has to walk all the way back to get my chair. I don’t like leaving it.” “Well, take it with.” Heero blinked. “I have to ... um ... excuse me while I wonder where my brains are.” Duo blinked too, then snorted. “Left them in your other pants. What’s my excuse?” “Brain injury.” The man just laughed and walked off, calling over his shoulder. “Forest, trees. Have a nice day.” Duo just sighed. “Ok, I’ll take off my stupid hat now. You walk along with me, I’ll push the chair. If I have trouble getting it to go, I’ll figure out some sort of remote.” Duo began to push the chair, heading for their favourite table at the internet café near the other end of the mall. It took them almost twenty minutes to make it but Duo felt that he’d done well. “How’s that?” “Good. I want to check your vitals again.” Duo held still while Heero did so. “You have any idea how much better I’m doing?” Heero just raised an eyebrow at Duo. “I have. You’re doing very well. Increase in efficiency is 37.4%. Very good. Especially since you’re taking it easy.” Duo nodded. “Ok. Things are looking up. Since my back is healed now, I can workout a bit harder. I’m not going to work too much harder as there’s not that much of a rush for me to be back in form. I’m going to syc and start finding out about the dogs.” “Ok. I’ll be ready with my information in about ten minutes.” Duo glanced up from his monitor. “Ok. Give me a little longer. I want to find out how many dogs may be available. And cats. Can’t leave out the kitties.” Heero smiled a bit, Duo looked so happy. He hadn’t been lately. Heero knew that Duo wasn’t a complainer by any means, in fact he’d never complain at all. Bitch like a bandit, yes, scream and yell, swear too. But never really let it all be too much. Duo was strong, sometimes too strong. But, now that he was beginning to really heal and get back his strength, he looked happy again. Heero returned to his research, content. It didn’t take them long to finish their researches. Heero found out that there was no legal reason that they couldn’t import as many dogs as they wanted. There were a few statutes on the books about dogs, but all of them were about keeping them under control, leash laws and cleaning up after them. He decided to see about building several dog parks and other facilities for them. Duo found out that there were hundreds of shelters on Earth that had pets begging for homes. Duo was just leaning back to stretch when three people sat down at a table nearby. “That was fun. I miss having a pet. Wish we could have one here.” “I love that little dog. Too bad we can’t get another appointment sooner.” The third speaker turned out to be a woman. “Yeah, but we’d wear the poor thing out. She’s a good dog. Played with us so nice. But she was tired by the time we were done. Can’t work a dog like that too hard. Make’s ‘em sick.” The dark haired man replied, “Yeah, glad to see that they give her a good rest between appointments. It’s just that it really limits the number of people who can see her in a day. But it would be selfish to work her any harder. Just wish there were more dogs up here. There’s only about three or four on the whole station. It’s just too expensive to bring them up. Quarantine and all that.” Duo turned around and butted in, cheerfully asking, “Why quarantine them on this end? That doesn’t make sense.” “Hey! No damn idea. Just the rules, ya know? You’re the guy that owns Binky.” Duo admitted that he was. He also told the three about his idea to bring up dogs and cats. All three people thought it would be a good idea. They also thought that anyone wanting a pet ought to have to pass a test and take classes on how to care for them. Most of the people on the station were spacers or colony born and many of them had no idea at all how to care for an animal. Heero silently made notes while Duo gossiped with the three. Most of what they said made sense, the rest he was taking under advisement. From whom he wasn’t sure yet. . Heero settled into the chair again, he’d gotten up to shake hands with their three advisors. Duo had stayed seated, admitting that it was still a little painful to get up from a seated position. “I didn’t know that. Why don’t you tell me these things?” “Didn’t want to worry you. Thought it’d go away sooner or later.” “Sooner, now that I know you’re having pain. I’ll research what exercises you should do to strengthen the muscles. Now, though, I’m going to check on the regulations for importing animals. There’s no reason that people on the station shouldn’t have dogs, cats or small rodents that I can find. Although, I think rodents are a bad idea. They get out and there’s a problem as they breed like...rabbits. Do not snicker at me.” But Duo did, in fact, he cracked up. After he was done laughing, he announced that they could always ‘fix’ rodents. Heero announced that that wasn’t practical, due to the small size and short life of the individuals. He finished by saying, “and I don’t see how they can call it fixing, it’s more like breaking, don’t you think?” Duo agreed then cracked up again. Heero just smiled a bit. He was glad to see that Duo’s sense of humor still hadn’t deserted him. They both jumped when their phones went off at the same time, then they laughed and answered. Quatre’s number showed on both their phones. Trowa always made calls to them Conference calls so they could all talk together. Message passing usually led to confusion of one kind or another. “Conference call from Mr. Winner, please be ready in ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one.” “Hey! What are you two up to? I’ve gotten some interesting communiques from the Station Head. Something about you asking about laws about pets?” Duo blinked for a second then just announced. “We’re trying to find out why there aren’t any pets on the station. There doesn’t seem to be a reg or statute against it. So why not?” “Don’t know. Heero on it?” “Like you wouldn’t believe. There’s pets going begging on Earth, so why can’t we bring them up here?” You could practically hear Quatre’s mind working. “Don’t know. Get Wufei to do the legal research for you. He needs something to do beside study. I have another call. Bye.” Duo blinked at Heero for a second. “Something’s up with him. He usually isn’t this busy. This colony is going to kill him if he doesn’t slow down.” Heero nodded. “While you were ill, we didn’t say much, but he’s really working himself too hard. Trowa is as frantic as he ever gets. I’d like to grab Quatre and drag him off somewhere quiet for a while.” Duo thought for a while as he continued his research. “I think ... he’s up to something. Something ...” Duo trailed off, biting at his lip. Heero just nodded. . It took them a few days to get everything lined out. The station administrator answered their question with a simple memo. He told them that the only reason there were no pets on the station was that no one had ever asked to have one. He also stated that, if they wanted to pay the freight, there was no reason they couldn’t bring up as many cats and dogs as they wanted to. They were, however, told firmly that no rodents of any variety would be allowed. Gnawing habits might cause problems that they didn’t want to deal with. Cats were encouraged. They would be responsible for all the arrangements, but the station would do the interviews for ownership. They had the records of everyone on the station. A psychologist had final approval. Heero thought that was a good idea, Duo just shook his head. Duo started making arrangements to bring up every cat and dog he could manage. Heero searched for some place to put them until they were adopted. Duo got hold of every cat, dog, and bird in twenty cities around the world. He made arrangements with several of WEI’s subsidiary carriers to pick them up and bring them to the station, in several shipments so that the facilities Heero was arranging wouldn’t be overloaded Heero found several loading docks for rent. He rented them after making sure that they were suitable for short term housing for animals. He also hired several people for each dock, people who would see to the feeding, watering, and exercising of the animals until they were taken away. To good homes, Duo would make sure of that. Heero threw himself into the arrangements with his usual efficiency. Duo was happy, he was recovering more quickly than the doctors expected, much to Heero’s pleasure and fiddling with this was keeping him distracted from the aches and pains of his recovery. Duo surreptitiously checked his file. He was sore most of the time, but he expected that. He wanted to see how he was doing against Heero’s projections. After reviewing the file he decided that he was really ‘exceeding expectations’ as Heero had said. He also decided that he was going to demand more massages. He liked Heero’s massages, they felt so good, sooner or later they were going to lead to more good things. Duo was going to see to that, as soon as he was sure his back was up to it. . Heero checked his data again and smiled. “Well, looks like you’re ready to move from forty percent to sixty. You can skip fifty percent altogether. And you’re ready to go on a tread mill as well.” Duo grinned, whooped and punched the air. “Yes! Yes, yes. Yay! Sixty percent, here I come. Heero, you know what this means?” “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” “It means that I can finally visit the new animals. I’ve been wanting to see the docks where they are and make sure that they’re up to par. I know that Trowa inspected them himself but ... um ... I just wanna see for myself. You know?” Heero nodded. “I do. We can go now, if you like.” “I like. Let’s go.” Heero handed Duo a cane. Duo took it, grinned and started out the door. “We’ve been importing animals for the last three weeks. And we’ve sent over five hundred out into the population. So far, we’re doing very well. We bringing Binky?” Heero shook his head. “No. I don’t want to be distracted by her just now. Poor little girl is resting anyway. We need to cut back on her appointments.” “We could have appointments with some of the new animals. And testing is taking too long. We need to speed that up. One way to speed things up is to let animal and person bond during a petting session.” Duo grinned suddenly and announced. “And that just sounds dirty.” Heero snickered. “Get your mind out of the gutter.” “I do, but it just falls right back in again.” Heero smacked Duo on the back of the head. “Hey!” “Baka.” Duo gave him the ‘raspberry’. . Duo glanced around the large bay and nodded. The cages were set up around the perimeter of the bay in three ranks. Each one placed so that the animals wouldn’t defecate on each other. The room smelled slightly of animal and much more heavily of disinfectant and soap. The floor was spotless. “Very nice. Clean. I don’t like seeing all the animals caged. Shouldn’t they be out on the floor?” Heero just shrugged. “Don’t know. Never had much contact with any kind of animal.” Footsteps made them turn. “Hi. I’m sorry. You can’t come in here without an authorization. I know you’d like a pet but you have to go to the sign up office. Here’s a card with the address.” Duo smiled at the man. He’d hired most of the staff sight unseen, a recommendation from the employment office and a psych exam enough for him. “Thanks. But we’ve got authorization.” Duo fished in his pocket and produced his ID. “Here.” “Oh, thanks. Um ... Mr. Maxwell! Man. Glad to meet you. Come into the office.” Heero followed Duo into the office and accepted the cup of coffee the man offered. “I’m Argus Flint. I’m head honcho around here. Sort of. Mr. Yuy, I got the memo. Everything is up to par. I checked the tracts you suggested.” Heero just nodded and waited for Duo to get his coffee. When Duo settled in a chair the man continued, “We keep all the animals penned to avoid fighting, but each animal gets at least three hours out on the floor. We’ve managed to find compatible combinations. Dogs that don’t fight with each other and cats that ... coexist. And we clean the floor between each group so that they won’t spread any diseases they might have. So far we haven’t had any sick animals. The Earth side team has done a really good job. So ... do you have any questions?” Duo shook his head as Heero just finished his coffee and stood up. He said, “I’d like to take a look at the facility, please. Duo, do you want to come with me or sit here?” “I’ll come. I want a look too. It looks good but I’d be less than thorough if I didn’t.” Argus led them out onto the floor without complaint. They were immediately inundated by a flood of animals. Every dog in the room rushed up to them, begging to be petted. Duo just sat down on the floor and obliged every animal that he could manage. Heero took a place a bit away from Duo and did the same. Several people in the room looked at the smiling boys and had to smile back. Duo finally managed to calm the excited animals near him and get back to the task at hand. They wandered around the tiers, examining cages, petting the animals and in general poking into everything. “Well?” Duo met Heero on the top tier. Heero nodded his approval. “Clean, neat, animals in good condition. Exactly as Trowa said.” “Good. I found the same things. Do you want to examine the other facilities or do you think this is enough?” Duo thought a moment, he was still a bit weak and sore and really didn’t want to exhaust himself. “Is Argus over all the facilities or just this on?” “All of them.” Heero absently checked Duo’s pulse. “Well, if he’s over all of them, I don’t think we need to see them all. He’s really doing a good job.” “Ok. Let’s go to the mall and take your walk.” “Fine. We should have a word or two with the people first. Tell them they’re doing a good job, all that.” Heero just nodded and went to find Argus. . Quatre sighed, rubbed his face and returned to the report. He was very tired and really wanted to go home and slide into bed with Trowa. He was too tired for sex but just being held was good. Instead he had to finish this report and decide what to do about credentials for all of them. They needed ‘street cred’ as Duo called it and the only way he could see to have it was by proving that they had what it took. In other words, they needed Ph.D.’s in as many fields as possible. He looked up as Trowa came into the office. “Tro’ love, what time is it?” “Late. Come to bed. You’ll be too tired to make sense of any of that soon. And you haven’t eaten all day. Come on. I’ve got a tray.” Trowa didn’t allow Quatre to argue with him, he just pulled the report out of his hands, dropped it on the desk and dragged Quatre behind him. “But, Trowa, I have to finish reading that!” “No, you don’t. If you’re supposed to have a meeting, cancel it. You’re the boss. I know you’re father didn’t wear himself out like this.” “I’m not my father. I have to prove myself ...” Trowa interrupted Quatre softly. “No you don’t. You’re a Gundam pilot and god help the man who really forgets that. Remember it yourself. Stand up to those men and tell them the truth. You’re not your father, you need to delegate and you won’t stand for them going behind your back for any reason. You need to fire the worst offenders to get the attention of the rest. Now, Meli, we’re going to eat, sleep, get up late and take a day off. No arguments.” Quatre sighed, “Fine. And I do see the sense in what you’re saying. I’m too tired to argue anyway. I’ll think about all this tomorrow. And I want your input on who I should fire. You’re not right in the middle of it like I am. And I think I want Wufei, Heero, and Duo’s input too. But I’ll call them in the morning.” They wandered down the hall to the bedroom, Trowa nearly carrying Quatre. They made it through the tray of cheese, fruit and bread before Quatre fell asleep on Trowa’s shoulder. Trowa just settled Quatre more comfortably and lay down beside him. He’d be much more careful of Quatre from now on. He couldn’t work in this exhausted state. Not and do anyone any real good. . Wufei looked as tired as he felt. He was studying laws, and all he could think was the whole thing was too complicated. There were too many loop holes, contradictions and just plain idiocy. He looked his notes over and thought to himself that he could come up with a better code of law all by himself. He stared into space for a moment then started writing. He wrote for over two hours, read his notes then locked them into his desk. He had a meeting with several of the men he was interviewing for places in the legal system of Mina Hurr he was really thinking of revising the judicial system quite a bit. He’d have to speak to Quatre before making any firm decisions. Then he froze in place for a moment. The entire colony was a private holding, this put an entirely different spin on things. His meeting didn’t go well. He was disgusted to find that, of the six men present, only two could see beyond his age to his position. He’d finally had to tell the four men to leave the restaurant before he did something regrettable. The one who had argued needed a bit of help from one of the other men to get to the door. Wufei checked several books and found that his idea was legal within ESUN. If Mina Hurr, as private property and an independent legal entity, chose to make its own laws, they could. He smiled to himself and decided that this would take quite a weight off Quatre’s shoulders. And make Duo howl with laughter. He finished his notes and gave them to a woman from the secretarial pool to type up. . Milliardo Peacecraft, A.K.A. Zechs Merquise, sighed softly. He’d been asked to be a liaison officer for Mina Hurr so he was now reading everything he could get his hands on about the new colony. He was impressed with the scope of Quatre’s ambitions and a bit intimidated. He decided that he needed to speak to Quatre so he called his number. The answering machine took the call. Milliardo snarled softly. This was one of the things that annoyed everyone. No one seemed to be on any regular schedule. It was hard to do much when everyone was sleeping, eating and working on different shifts. He sighed and returned to his reading with a heavy heart and a thumping head ache. He really just wanted to cuddle with Wufei but his lover was busy too. He finished reading the last report of the day and closed the folder, tossing it aside. He stretched and sighed again. He was going home to Wufei and taking him out to supper, whether he wanted to go or not. Milliardo was tired of reading, tired of missing Wufei and tired of being tired. He stood up and put on his jacket. His long strides carried him quickly to the rooms he shared with Wufei. He found Wufei with his nose in a book, as usual. “‘Fei, I’m tired of this.” Wufei looked up from his reading. “Tired of what, exactly?” His words were sharp but his smile was gentle. “Tired of us not doing anything fun. I’ve been in my office, reading reports and...” He waved a hand. “All sorts of ... rot. And you’ve been in your office with your nose in a book. It’s been ... three weeks?” Wufei nodded. “About that. Since Duo got hurt. Come on then. What do you want to do?” “I just want to go out to supper. Have a nice meal, sit and talk over coffee and brandy. It’s not too much to ask, is it?” “No. I’m in the mood for something like that myself. When we get over to Mina Hurr, such things are going to be hard to come by. We should make the most of the facilities here while we can. I’ve come to some decisions and I want to discuss them with you. If you don’t mind.” “I don’t mind. And by the look in your eyes, I’ll find your conversation fascinating. Come on, let’s get into something a little nicer and see where we can get reservations.” Wufei stretched when he stood up. His back was hurting from stooping over books for so long. Milliardo grinned at him. “I’ll take care of that later. Tit for tat. My back’s killing me. I think who ever chose that chair has to be really short. And I can’t figure out how to adjust it. It’s killing me.” Wufei snorted. “I’ll drop by in the morning and fix it for you. For someone who can fix a gundam, you’re impossible with simple machinery. Dork.” Milliardo grinned over his shoulder as he led Wufei down the hall to the bedroom. “Yup, never was much good with office furniture. Noin used to laugh at me. Wonder how she’s doing?” He opened his closet and pulled out a shirt that matched his eyes and a pair of pale cream trousers. “I haven’t heard from her since she Dear Johned me. Here, wear this? I love the way you look in it. Please?” Wufei accepted the dark royal blue loose trousers and Mandarin collared jacket embroidered with phoenixes. “Thank you. I’m glad you like these. They’re like a set that Melan gave me. They were destroyed when the colony self destructed. Quatre had these made from a description I gave him during the wars.” Milliardo zipped his trousers and leaned over to tap at the computer on the small desk by the door. “Hmmmm. We can get a reservation at the Skyline. It’s ... twelve degrees, two levels and a corridor away. Take us about thirty minutes. Seven?” Wufei nodded. “Good. That’ll give us time to make it an easy walk, instead of a frantic sprint. I feel like I’ve run from one end to the other like ... some sort of ... I’m not sure what. I’m tired of rushing.” “Me too. We’ll take a nice walk in that pocket park down the main section corridor after. If you like, that is.” Milliardo picked up a brush and started brushing the tangles out of his hair before braiding it. “Sounds nice. There are pocket parks all over this station and plants in most of the malls. Very nice. I’ll miss them.” “Me too. But it takes years to bring up enough soil to make them. We’ll have to plan visits to nearby colonies for breaks. I just can’t do without something green once in a while. I’ll go stir crazy.” Wufei nodded his agreement and took the brush from Milliardo. “Thanks. We could get you a small green house. Bring up some of your orchids. That would be something.” Milliardo brightened. “Yes, and I’ll bring them up at my own expense. There shouldn’t be any complaints that way.” “Good. I’m ready. Let’s be on our way.” Milliardo followed Wufei down the hall, watching his backside sway in those silky trousers. He also noticed that Wufei’s hair was much longer and thicker now. He smiled at his lover’s retreating back. . They made it to the restaurant with time to spare so they decided to go to the bar and have a drink. The bar was very nice, quiet, a bit dim and full of Gundam pilots. Wufei poked Milliardo and laughed. “Well, there goes our nice quiet meal. Duo will see to that.” But he called to Duo and Heero then walked over to the table with a smile on his face. Duo stood up to shake hands with Milliardo. “Hi. We’re waiting on Quatre and Trowa. Looks like a pilot reunion. So, how’s tricks? And how the hell do you wind up a judge. ‘Fei, not that I’m knocking your accomplishments or anything but. ... wow. So, tell.” Wufei laughed back and explained that Quatre had had trouble with every single man he’d tried so he’d dumped it on Wufei. Not that he minded, he was fascinated by the idea of being head judge. “That means that I’m responsible for creating the laws for the colony. This isn’t a democracy more like a benign dictatorship, with Quatre as the dictator. I was going to have a bit of something worked out before I said much but this is too good a chance to pass up.” Milliardo frowned at him. “I’m sorry. I know that I said this was going to be a relaxing evening but if I can get Quatre’s ear tonight it’ll save me hours of work that I have to discard if he doesn’t like the idea. So ... just a few moments then it’s all over. I swear.” Milliardo gave him a skeptical look but refrained from making a fuss. It wouldn’t do him any good and he knew it. Besides he wanted to hear what Wufei was doing. And he knew that Duo and Heero would have interesting input. It looked like the evening was going to be lively, to say the least. They were only half way through their first drinks when Quatre and Trowa hurried in. Quatre flopped gracelessly into a chair and demanded. “Wine! Something sweet and fruity.” Trowa smiled but took scotch neat. Duo saluted Quatre with his beer while Heero just sipped at his rum and coke. Wufei and Milliardo both were drinking Chardonnay. The bar tender had asked for ID but when he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. Not that they looked like they were going to cause trouble but they made him nervous. The only thing they did was change their reservations to a table for six. They confined themselves to talk of their day until they were seated. Duo told everyone about his progress, complained about the cane and Heero’s ‘cruelty’ in making him use it. Heero just shrugged and smiled, remarking, “I’m so cruel. I don’t want you slipping and undoing all your work. You see what my day was like.” Duo threw a sugar packet at him making everyone laugh. Trowa and Quatre both had the same complaint, no one listened to them, every single executive seemed to think they knew better than the owner. They also seemed to think that repetition would convince Quatre of the correctness of their thoughts, or shouting. Wufei and Milliardo explained their reading but refrained from going into details. They finished their first drinks and were just getting ready to order second one’s when the host came and told them that their table was ready. He got them seated and handed out menus. “I’ll return in a few minutes to take your orders, shall I? Would you like to place a drink order now or wait?” They decided on now and ordered a bottle of wine for the whole table. Wine and glasses arrived in moments. Quatre poured a glass for each of them and passed them around. “Now, no business at dinner. It’ll just upset our stomachs. Or mine at any rate. I’m sick of being put down by my ... inferiors. Or should I say subordinates? Anyway, I’m tired of it.” Milliardo sighed, “I’m tired of trying to read all those ... I’m not sure exactly what they are. They’re supposed to be news releases about construction of the colony but they read more like scientific papers. No one I know, outside of us, would understand half of them. The publicity department is in despair, with good reason.” Trowa laughed, nodded to Quatre and said, “I told you so. Why don’t you have Milliardo write a proper publicity release and get that over with?” “Because I never thought of it. I was going to write one myself, when I could get around to it.” Duo yelped. “Dammit, Quatre, hire a staff then let them sit around on their hands why don’t you? You got to let go. Make people do stuff for you. Delegate. You’ll go round the bend if you don’t.” Trowa nodded in agreement and Milliardo made a mental note to start on the release tomorrow. Heero took his turn and dropped a real bomb in the middle of the table. “I’ve been checking who has credits enough to be granted the Ph.D’s that you want. I’ve got a question though. Duo and I both wonder why you want us to have degrees that are practically guaranteed to put us on the opposite side of the argument from the construction crews. They don’t care about paper. It’s street cred, as Duo says, that means the most to them. A Master’s is good enough for them and we’ve got credits enough for several all we have to do is submit a dissertation, how we managed to collect enough hours in so many subjects, I have no idea.” Wufei cleared his throat, everyone looked at him. “I think it’s a natural outcome of our curiosity. We all seem to take courses in something just because we’re curious about it. Thus, we wind up with credit in all sorts of things.” Duo snorted, “Yeah, and I’ve even got a magister scientić, of all things, in calculous. How the hell did I manage that?” Heero shrugged. “I saw that you had the credits and had written a dissertation for some reason. So I submitted it.” he looked around at the surprised faces. “What? I was bored.” Duo looked puzzled for a moment then asked, “Dissertation? What dissertation?” Heero started to speak but Duo cut him off unintentionally. “The only thing any where near such a thing was that thing I wrote when ... what’s his name? That quack that wrote something about creating an L-6 system. L-6? I ask you. Had to write something to prove to the idiot that there’s only five LaGrange points and always will be only five. That?” “Yes, and it was very good. It was accepted with some interest. I’ve got the letters. I was going to show them to you sooner but I decided that they’d only distract you.” Duo flapped a hand. “Not like I really care about that anyway. But so .. Quatre? You’ve got that look on your face.” “Yes, I’m thinking.” Quatre blessed Heero with one of his brilliant smiles. “You’ve actually asked a good question. I’ve been obsessed with proving our worth, in the wrong way. Actions speak much more loudly than words. A thing I seem to have forgotten for some reason I don’t remember.” He made a face then smiled at the server. They placed their orders and settled in to discus what degrees they really needed and who could get what quickest. Heero had all the figures in his head, of course. They decided to apply for what they could get with what credits they had and Quatre announced that, since Heero had all the data compiled, he could just do it for them. Heero nodded his agreement, telling the table that he’d let each one of them know what dissertations they needed to write. There were several groans. The food came at the end of that discussion and they settled in to eat, talking about general topics for most of the meal. Then Wufei dropped his bomb. “I’ve been thinking. We’ve already had some trouble with legal tangles on the colony. No one seems to be able to codify the law. So ... why don’t we just make our own?” The silence was sudden and absolute. |
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