Duo leaned back in his chair at a precarious angle and balanced a pencil on his nose. Thus positioned, he peered into the office of his girlfriend Sally Po... and saw, not the beautiful Sally, but the scowling visage of Sally's partner Wufei. At least Wufei would have been scowling had he not been meditating. When meditating, Wufei assumed a blank expression. Scowling, Duo mused, must upset the "balance of yin and yang" as Wufei called it.
And speaking of balance, Duo lost his.
As Duo crashed to the floor with a startled yelp, Wufei opened his eyes and growled, "Maxwell! You interrupted my meditation!"
Duo rolled to his feet, nonchalantly brushing imaginary dirt from his clothes. "The search for your inner onna wasn't going so well, so-"
"Maxwell!"
"Chang!"
"Still arguing I see," a voice neither had heard for years commented.
Duo's head whipped towards the new voice, and he cursed when his braid (which had continued after his head stopped) whapped him in the face.
Wufei chuckled and rose to greet the newcomer. "Yuy, it's been awhile."
Heero crossed the room and clasped Wufei's hand. "Wufei."
Duo, recovered from his braid beating, threw an arm across Heero's shoulders. "Hey! Don't I get a greeting too?"
Heero leveled a glare at him, and Duo backed off. "Guess that's a no."
Dorothy entered a few steps behind Heero and held out a Preventers jacket to him. "Une had this made back before you left, but she never got it to you..."
Ignoring the proffered jacket, Heero asked, "Where are the recordings of the attempt?"
Dorothy glanced from the jacket to his face several times, then lowered the jacket and sighed. "In my office. I'll go bring them to you."
Duo called after her, "Thanks, D! Me an' Heero'll have this solved in no time!"
"Dorothy and I are partners for this one," Heero surprised them all by stating matter-of-factly.
Dorothy paused at the door and stared at him in shock, and Wufei raised an eyebrow, but offered no opinion. Duo's reaction was much more vocal.
"B-b-but why? Heero, we're partners! I'm tired of doing desk work! I want to go back out in the field! And why Dorothy? She should be protecting Relena, not-"
Dorothy, tired of being spoken of as if she wasn't there, marched back to Duo and poked him in the chest, interrupting whatever explanation Heero was about to give. "Well, Mister Maxwell, protecting Relena is more exciting than desk work, and if you think she needs more protection than what Mr. Barton provides, then you be her bodyguard!" From over Duo's shoulder, she noticed Wufei moving his hands together in silent applause.
Her performance not over yet, she continued, "And as to why I am Heero's partner on this one, I was the only one who could find him, wasn't I? I think that action speaks loudly enough, don't you, Mr. Maxwell?" She grabbed the front of Heero's shirt and pulled him out the door before Duo's protests could be half-formed.
As the door shut behind them, Heero extricated his clothing from her grip. "Well done. I couldn't have said it any better myself."
"Somehow I think Heero Yuy going ballistic would make more of an impression." Dorothy leaned against the wall and knotted her hands together. "Despite what I said in there... well, you two have worked together before and..." She trailed off when Heero shook his head.
"Are there any more plausible reasons for us not to work together?"
"I don't work well with others."
Heero smirked. "Neither do I." Striding down the hall to Dorothy's office, he tossed over his shoulder, "I was Duo's partner only because no one else could put up with him for long periods of time. Compared to him, you're no challenge."
Dorothy's eyes lit up at his words. No challenge? Ha, Heero Yuy would see what sort of a challenge Dorothy Catalonia could be.
Heero replayed a recording and intently watched the faces of the crowd gathered outside the ESUN headquarters. He was searching for a clue, any clue at all, as to who might be responsible for the attempt on Relena's life.
On the slim chance that an accomplice was in the crowd at the time, he studied each expression in the section that had been recorded of the crowd. A tiny flicker of triumph, the lack or delay of horror or surprise- these he looked for, but his efforts were in vain.
Flipping off the recording, Heero rubbed the eyes that he never realized were aching and the painful pulsing at his temple that he had ignored.
Dorothy, silent during his intensive examination, held out an aspirin bottle and said, "This'll help. You should take it easy. Going blind won't help Miss Relena any."
"I'll be fine," Heero murmured, but he took the pain reliever despite his words. As he stood to place the recording in the filing cabinet with the other video tapes, his back cracked, and his movements were stiff, tired.
Moving behind him, Dorothy placed her hands on his shoulders and squeezed. Heero stiffened; Dorothy thought that if he became any stiffer, he could be classified as a petrified tree. "You need to relax, Heero. You'll put yourself in an early grave at this rate."
Heero shrugged, and Dorothy thought she saw him grimace- or maybe she had just imagined it. "I can't relax."
"Oh?" Dorothy teased, "Duo is mistaken. It's you with the pole shoved up his ass."
His sense of humor nonexistent, "Heero explained, "I have a mission to complete. Relaxation doesn't fit into that."
"Do you even know how to relax?"
Heero answered, "I own a bar." There was a brief twinkle in his eyes.
"Ah, of course, how could I forget? A drunken Heero Yuy..." Dororthy paused, contemplating the mental image. "Now that's something I would love to see."
"No, you wouldn't. I get painfully violent when I'm drunk."
Dorothy raised an eyebrow. "When are you not painfully violent?"
Heero laughed. So, thought Dorothy, he does have a sense of humor... a warped one to be sure, but a sense of humor nonetheless.
Now that Heero was slightly more relaxed, Dorothy began the massage. A few knots worked out of overly tired muscles and a couple sighs of contentment later- the first sigh had startled her so badly that she had checked to make sure he still had a pulse. She was sure she'd been killing him, until she realized that he was actually happy and expressing it outwardly- Dorothy mocked, "You're relaxed! I thought that was the cardinal sin on missions!"
Heero craned his neck- blessedly ache-free and unstiff- back to look at her. "I have to let my body rest sometimes. Wearing myself out does no good. Besides, I have to prove that I'm not as uptight as Wufei."
"So you agree to relax more often?"
Heero would normally have put up his guard at the sight of the crafty look on Dorothy's face, but that would have required moving which really was the last thing he wanted to do. Chancing moving his head, he nodded- a motion that looked very silly and deliberate since his head was tilted back so far.
Abruptly, Dorothy stopped the massage and started towards the door. "Good, now I have to pick out a dress. Miss Relena is holding a ball to show the people that all is well," she gesticulated grandly, imitating a queen speaking to her court, "and you, Heero, since you are so willing to relax, will be my escort."