Part Six
The trio exited the park with Duo in a much better mood, thanks to the attempts of Quatre. The black-clad American was happily singing, as he was supposed to, and didn't mind kicking up his knees to get in practice for later on.
"Chim-chiminey chim-chiminey chim-chim-cheree, a Duo's as lucky, as lucky can be! Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim-chim-cheroo, good luck will rub off, when I shake hands with you." Duo shook the hand of a passing stranger, who politely bowed. "Or blow me a kiss," a carriage full of Duo-fans happily obliged him, among other things that they wouldn't do in normal circumstances. "And that's lucky too!" the American sang, catching all the kisses in his hand. Pocketing them, he continued down the street.
Duo quieted down as they passed Quinze's house, but cheerily went up to the Chang door, finishing his song. Quatre rang the bell.
Inside, Sally Po was putting on some gloves before she went off to another "Votes for Women" rally. She was worried. Wu Fei hadn't come home yet with the children, making him very late; Relena, obnoxious as she was, was still missing; and tonight Catherine was cooking soup. Oh what was next??
A dog came out into the hall and rubbed up by Sally's feet. It had on a vest that said, "We warned her." Not really wanting the extra task of taking care of a pet, Sally had put the dog out several times. But it kept coming back. "Catherine?" Sally called.
"Hai." The knife-thrower came out of the kitchen.
"Do you know where this stray came from?" Catherine shook her head, looking somewhat guilty. Sally didn't have time to deal with that right now. "Then would you be a dear and take it to the pound while your soup cooks?" Catherine smiled a devilish smile.
"Of course." Catherine picked up the animal by the scruff of the neck and went out the servant's door in back. The dog wiggled and struggled every step of the way, trying to bite Catherine. Sally believed that perhaps if the dog was so disagreeable, the pound might put it to sleep.
::ring ring::
Now what? Sally opened the door to see Duo with the children. How interesting. "Where's Wu Fei?"
"He had to tie up some loose ends at work," Duo said. "So I brought home these two."
"Domo arigatoo," Sally said hurriedly. She was starting to run late. "Heero will…oh, wait, no, he can't it's his day off."
"It's what??" Duo demanded. "I should be out with him right now!" Duo turned on his heel and ran into the previously neglected wall of wind. We weren't letting him get away. "But I was supposed to meet him!" Duo screamed. "You can't do this to me! Why didn't you tell me it was his day off?!"
"Don't you know the story?" Mirror demanded. "You were the one who spilled the beans way back in part 1!! If you did that, you must have known the story!"
"Well I didn't, so let me go!!"
Sally cleared her throat. "How about you, young man? You're a sweep, and our drawing room chimney had been in a ghastly condition for some time now."
"But I want to be with Heero!"
"Thank so much for agreeing," Sally said, dashing through the wall of wind, unperturbed. "Have fun children!" She raced down the street.
Duo muttered all sorts of words under his breath that don't bear repeating and stamped into the house, trailing dirt behind him. Quatre, unpleased with the sudden mess, ran to a linen closet and took out some sheets to cover at least some of the house from the walking dirt cloud.
The dirty American sat down in a huff. Taking out a brush, Duo started to clean the chimney. Trowa and Quatre watched.
"You see, a chimney is built real tall," Duo explained, releasing his anger with each brush-stroke. "So when the wind is just right, it pulls the smoke from the chimney. It's basically a big vacuum." A gust of wind came across the top and tugged. "Trowa, help me out." Trowa obeyed, grabbing the stick of the brush, but Duo let go. Of course the green-eyed pilot went up the chimney.
"Trowa!" Quatre yelled. "Trowa, what happened? Trowa!"
"Duo!" a voice exploded. That was Heero. "Duo where have you been? I've been waiting all day!" Duo looked over in complete innocence.
"It was the twins! They didn't tell me it was your day off, and dropped me in a pile of dirt and soot for this scene!"
"Oh really?" Image demanded. "And whose idea was it to make like Dick Van Dyke and play the old man at the bank?"
Duo shook his fist at the ceiling. "You never told me it was his day off!"
"You should have known," Heero stated. He looked around. "Where's Trowa?
While the arguing had been going on, Quatre could barely hear a response from his brother, let alone see him. Maybe if he cleared a little of that soot, he might hear Trowa a little better. He grabbed a brush and started brushing. Suddenly, he was pulled up the chimney.
"Duo," Heero started. "What have you been up to?"
"Nothing," said Duo innocently. "Honest! Shall we follow?"
"We have to. Ikou."
On the roof. . .
Trowa watched Quatre go sailing into the air and land gently by his side.
"Daijobu desu ka?" the blonde asked, his face filled with concern.
"Daijobu. Daijobu desu ka?"
"Daijobu. Now what?"
"We wait." Sure enough, Heero and Duo came out soon after, floating down as gently as they did.
"You two alright?" Heero said curtly.
"Hai."
"You know," Duo said. "This is what you call a fortuiti-
"Don't," Quatre said firmly. "Don't butcher the language more than it already has been."
Duo looked at Quatre, raising an eyebrow, but shrugged. "Fortunate circumstance. What say we explore the rooftops of London?"
"Exploration?" Quatre's eyes lit up. So naturally, when Quatre and Duo turned with pleading eyes, Heero didn't have a chance. Try as he might not to, he agreed.
"So much for a day off," Heero muttered. "Attention! Assert arms! Right face!" Heero marched in front of them, grabbing a brush so they formed a nice line. No one would get lost this way. "Quick march!" And off they went, meandering around chimneys, jumping gaps between roofs, climbing rails, and going across rooftops.
Quite a while later, it appeared their journey was at an end when they came to a pillar of black smoke and nothing around them. However, a handy spoonful of gunpowder forced the fumes to take the shape of stairs leading up, which they climbed. They came to a steeple top at the top of the stairs, high above the streets of London. From so high up, they could see for miles in any direction, and the view was spectacular.
"That is one of God's greatest gifts," Duo said, his voice quiet with reverence and awe as he watched the sun set over the Cathedral's dome. The dirty American rested his head on Heero's shoulder, his eyes wide with wonder and respect. The blue-eyed youth looked at Duo, his face soft and gentle, but that only lasted for about one second. The Japanese youth shrugged, getting Duo's chin of his shoulder, and looked around.
"Nice view, now let's head back."
"How?" Quatre asked. "We're on top of this building, how will we get down?" Heero pointed out the cloud that had brought them up was still there. Right. Climbing aboard, they started to float down.
As they went down, Heero took a deep breath and sang, " Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey chim-chim-cheree, when you're with Duo, you're in mad company. No where is there a more happier few," Duo joined in with surprisingly good harmony, "then those that sing chim-chim cheree-chim cheroo. Chim-chiminey chim-chim cheree-chim-cheroo!"
Silence.
"Right," Heero said. "Quatre!" he called out.
"What?" the Arab asked "I'm right here."
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!"
"Quatre-sama!" Several heads popped out of chimneys, no matter how tight the fitting.
"Rashid!" Quatre shouted, very happy to see all his friends. "And the rest of the Maguanac Corps! Yokatta!" The little blond ran over and greeted everyone one of his old friends. When he finally did take a seat, Duo took that as his cue.
"Stepping Time! Stepping Time!" The Maguanacs didn't do a thing.
"Please follow him!" Quatre called. Everyone came out, begrudgingly. But with Quatre-sama ordering them to dance though, who could refuse?
The floating camera had a lot of work to do as it followed all sorts of bizarre movements and wire-assisted stunts. With Duo leading it, craziness wasn't an option. It was a guarantee. Tricks were done on railings, chimney tops, roofs, anything available. Finally, Duo stepped in front of a Japanese youth.
"Heero Yuy: Stepping Time!" Duo grabbed Heero's arm and pulled. Heero didn't budge.
"I. May. Be. Forced. To. Sing. But. I. Do. Not. Dance."
"Really?" asked the twins. With another tug from Duo and a wall of wind, Heero suddenly found himself in the death grip of Duo's arms as the braided maniac twirled and danced around. Duo addressed Trowa.
"Hey Trowa?"
"PUT ME DOWN!!"
"After I dance-"
"LET ME GO!!"
"with Heero, I'm-"
"TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!!"
"supposed to let him-"
"DROP ME RIGHT NOW!!"
"lead the Maguanacs-"
"GET OFF ME!!"
"in a dance number."
"YOU BAKA!!"
"So would you-"
"YOU BASTARD!!"
"lead them please?"
"OMAE O KOROSU!!"
"You know Heero," Duo said finally addressing the wiggling pilot in his arms. "That line's getting old." The smiling braided maniac twirled. "Besides. I've been waiting all this fic in order to dance with you, and I'm not going to loose this chance."
What came out of Heero's mouth was unprintable. The black clad American merely smiled and danced out of camera range, leaving Trowa to deal with the Maguanacs. Still, this was a chance for the former circus performer to show off his acrobatics.
The tall pilot led the Maguanacs through a few complicated dance steps, then, with a little help from that wall of wind, spun around like there was zero gravity. When he landed, he smiled and bowed to the camera and sat down by Quatre, who was applauding and cheering loudly for Trowa.
With a Trowa sitting out the rest of the dance and Duo somewhere off with Heero, (if they followed Heero's shouting, they'd probably find them, but why bother?) Rashid led the Maguanac Corps through even more dance steps. Ultimately, he led them up to a thin railing and started a kick-line. All around, everyone was having fun.
"GUNDAM SCUM!! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT PREVIOUS INDIGNITY!!" Quinze turned to his nameless flunky. "EMPTY THE MAGAZINE!! BURN THAT ROOF TO ASHES IF YOU HAVE TO, BUT GET THOSE GUNDAM PILOTS!!!!" The flunky smiled cheerfully, obviously a sadist.
Meanwhile, at the impromptu dance floor, everyone was having a good time, though no one was floating from laughter yet. Quatre was taking a turn in leading the Maguanac Corps, but he didn't do anything nearly as fancy as Trowa or Rashid. Duo and Heero were back, Heero's face red in anger. (Or was it anger?) And Duo was smiling brightly. So naturally, it took everyone by surprise when they suddenly started taking fire.
"K'so," Heero muttered. "Quinze must have seen us." Suddenly, all forty-four persons on the roofs congregated around only one chimney, falling down one at a time. Trowa and Quatre were already at the chimney, but Heero and Duo were farther back in the pack.
Keeping an eye on Quinze's roof and everything coming from there, Heero led Duo through the crowd. The cobalt-eyed youth saw a missile coming right for the violet-eyed idiot. With no other options, Heero pointed his umbrella gun at the missile. Said missile kindly turned around and went in the opposite direction. That gave them the opportunity they needed to get to the chimney and jump down.
Inside the Chang house, Catherine exited the kitchen to see about 25 men dancing around in the drawing room, all of them covered in soot and dirt, getting it all over the place. Her reaction was quite natural. "Aaaaaaaahhh!!" The Maguanacs followed suit.
"Aaaaaaaahhh: Stepping Time. Aaaaaaaahhh: Stepping time. Never need a reason, never need a rhyme. Aaaaaaaahhh: Stepping Time!" Catherine replied with a frying pan in her hand.
"Onee-san!"
"Trowa?"
"Please don't hit them. They're friends of Quatre's." Catherine scrutinized the now 40 men dancing around.
"They're sweeps. How would Quatre-sama know sweeps?"
"Quatre-sama: Stepping Time!"
"Rashid!" That was Quatre. Where had he come from? Catherine looked around. He was talking to a very tall bearded man. "Rashid, thank you for all the fun, but please go home. This house doesn't need any more dirt or soot."
"Hai, Quatre-sama."
Rashid opened the door to see Wu Fei standing there, face white in surprise. Rashid grabbed the Chinese youth's hand and shook it. "Have a good evening." One by one, all of the Maguanacs left, each shaking Wu Fei's hand. Still bursting with energy, the Maguanacs continued dancing in the street, doing various flips, cartwheels and other assorted stunts as they took off for the park. Constable Noin came across them while doing her rounds, but she was merely incorporated into the dance as two Maguanacs used her to kick themselves up into the air. When they all finally disappeared out of camera range, Constable Noin merely shook her head.
"Just another day at work," she said, continuing about her duties.
Go to the Finale