Smells Like Teen Spirit
By Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 79
The Burning of the Midnight Lamp

(x) X (x)

When they arrived at the station, Trowa led them through the parking lot, which was filled with many empty, ghostly-looking police vehicles, and around to the side of the building, where there was an unobtrusive side door. "This leads to the lounge where the officers hang out on their off-hours, sometimes," explained Trowa as he fished around in one pocket for his key ring.

Heero and Duo watched him in silence. Heero held the thermos of tea in his hands, a thin wisp of steam curling out of the opening in its top and wafting around his and Duo's faces. Duo, for his part, was antsy, bouncing on the balls of his feet and swinging his arms impatiently.

"But, at this hour, I doubt anyone will be in here," Trowa went on as he flipped through his rather impressive collection of keys, finally choosing one and inserting it into the lock above the door's handle. He pushed the door open slightly, just enough to poke his head inside and scope out the scene.

"Well?" Heero queried, cutting right to the chase, as was typical of him.

Beyond the door, Trowa had to squint his eyes slightly to adjust to the darkness inside. Fortunately Trowa's extremely keen vision was acute enough to make his quick visual sweep of the lounge very efficient, even though the only light source was the thin line of white light shining in from underneath the door on the other side of the room. As far as he could tell, everything was in its place, left just as it had been in the early evening, when most of the policemen had gone home.

Pulling his head back from inside, he turned around and closed the door partially as he addressed Heero and Duo, who were still standing a few feet behind him in the parking lot. "I think the coast is clear," he informed them. "The only person who should be on duty right now is the guy sitting at the front desk. Once we're past him, it will be easy to get back to the hallway where they're keeping Quatre."

"Alright, then," said Duo. "Tell us what to do, and we'll do it!"  He allowed his body to flicker a few times from solid to atomic state as he added, "Don't forget that I'm a master sneak!"

Trowa nodded, and then cast an expecting glance at Heero, who just stared back. There seemed to be an unspoken understanding that Heero would be able to pull off whatever was needed when the time came, and any notion that he would be less than perfect at it was hardly even blinked twice at. "The guy on duty tonight is someone who will recognize me, so I will do my best to stall and distract him while you two get by," Trowa instructed. "I know it's a little haphazard, but it's the only way I can think of to get you back there without rousing suspicion."

"I was born haphazard," commented Duo proudly. Heero rolled his eyes.

"Okay, let's go, then," said Trowa. He turned around and silently opened the door again, this time stepping into the darkness inside the station. The moment the two teens had entered the lounge, Trowa quickly closed the door behind them and locked it, sealing the three of them in almost pitch-blackness. The sound of Trowa's shoes on the tile floor mingled with the loud tick of a clock that was hidden somewhere in the darkness. "Wait here," Trowa whispered almost incoherently, before opening the door to the brightly lighted room beyond. Heero and Duo, whose eyes were much slower to adapt to the shadows, were momentarily blinded by the sudden assault of light.

The tall goalie only half-pulled the door closed behind him, still allowing light to spill into the room, as well as giving Heero and Duo a clear, unobstructed view of what was going on in the next room. The door led to a cluttered, office-like space that was separated from the station's front lobby by a counter, above which was a glass barrier. There was a wall of equipment, computers and such, and in the middle of the area were four paper-covered desks that were pushed together to form a sort of table. The officer on duty, a tall man with a pencil-thin mustache and slick, black hair, lounged in a swivel chair behind the front desk, half working on some paperwork, half watching the late-night soccer game on the nearby television that sat beside him. Trowa glanced quickly over his shoulder as he neared the counter, nodding his head towards a door on the other side of the area, and then went on to greet the officer.

"That you, rookie?" said the officer when he heard Trowa call out a Ôhello'. He didn't divert his eyes from the television for a second. "What're you doing here at this ridiculous hour?"

Trowa opened his mouth, ready with the truthful answer that he had brought in some tea, when he realized that Heero still had the thermos! He groped for a suitable answer, hoping that the real time that had elapsed was nothing compared to the slow seconds he felt ticking by. Eyes falling upon the type-written document that lay half-forgotten in front of the officer, Trowa said, "Uhm, just gonna work on some extra paperwork."

The officer threw his head back and laughed at Trowa's remark, just as one of the players on the television screen scored a goal. "Ha! All you newbies are the same. Work, work, work!" He glanced up at Trowa and said with a sly, half-smile, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

"Well, I couldn't sleep," countered Trowa defensively, thanking his lucky stars that his story seemed to be holding out. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a familiar cloud of black, atomic energy creeping out from the door to the lounge. Mission underway.

"Then that's pretty damn depressing, kid, if the best thing you could think of to do with your restless night was work," answered the officer, his eyes still affixed to the soccer game. "Kids your age should be out at this hour anyway! Go out; get drunk; get laid!"

A somewhat frustrated grimace fluttered across Trowa's mouth. "I'm not cheap or easy. I like to keep myself under my own control, thank you." He hoped he didn't come off as irritated as he sounded to his own ears. In such a careful situation, he couldn't have any unpredictable reactions. If he was caught sneaking civilians back into the station's more restricted areas, there would be hell to pay.

"Sorry, kid. Just a suggestion, s'all," said the officer, finally looking away from the television as a commercial break began. He glanced at Trowa for all of two seconds, and then went back to scrawling on the document in front of him.

"No big deal," said Trowa. He looked back over to the other side of the room to check Duo's progress, and caught sight of him just as the black cloud was slipping around the corner of the door he was trying to reach. A few seconds later, Duo's head discreetly popped out of the door to wait and watch for Heero, who was quietly starting to make his expedition across the room.

"So, kid, you like soccer?" asked the officer as he looked up to see if the game was back on.

"It's not bad," answered Trowa, hoping to keep this conversation alive as long as possible. "I'm more of a lacrosse player."

"Lacrosse, huh?" mused the officer. "Don't really know too much about it myself, other than the fact that it's real big way over on the East Coast. Though it seems to have really caught fire over here lately."

"It's a good game. I enjoy every moment I get to play," replied Trowa, watching as Heero stepped out into the light, moving as silently as a cat-burglar towards Duo. His progression was a bit slower and more careful than Duo's was for obvious reasons.

Heero, for his part, was sure that the loud thudding of his heart would be more than enough noise to give him away. He hadn't quite realized how much of a task this would be until he actually found himself unable to back out of it. Still, the ends seemed to justify the means, and Heero felt it was worth taking the risk. He could see Duo's face peeking out of the door just a few yards away, and he found that if he focused all his energy on the long-haired sprite, it helped him ignore the nervousness that tingled in his veins.

Things seemed to be running smoothly, until out of nowhere, there was a play in the soccer game that caused the officer to leap out of his seat, crying, "Go-o-oal!" The exclamation startled Heero, and he fumbled the thermos of tea he was still holding, the metal container clunking awkwardly against the back of a nearby chair. The movement caused Heero to stumble a little, and his shoes skidded on the tile floor, making loud taps as panic overtook him.

The noise, despite it being a low and rather subtle one, was enough to perk the ears of the officer, who suddenly tensed, reaching down to mute the television. "Did'ja hear that, rookie?" he asked Trowa, who had jammed his clenched fists deep into his pockets. "I thought I heard something fall," said the officer, furrowing one eyebrow. Slowly turning around, the officer scanned the area behind him, that same perplexed expression on his face becoming more pronounced when he saw nothing out of the ordinary there. His thin eyes trailed to the slightly ajar door to the lounge, and panned across the room several times, taking in the dull flickering of the computer monitors against the wall, and the papers rustling on the desks in the low breeze of the fan overhead. "This late shift must be getting to me," he muttered to himself when he was satisfied that nothing was out of order.

Meanwhile, Heero was folded up underneath one of the desks, his hands clutching the tea thermos so tightly that they left moist fingerprints on its shiny surface. That had been a little too close for comfort, and his paranoia about being caught had suddenly doubled. He remained there a bit longer than he probably had to, just trying to regulate his breathing to its usual pace. When he was comfortable with continuing, Heero carefully slid out from underneath the desk, creeping across the floor in a low crouch. He could hear the commentary on the soccer game again, as well as the resumed conversation between Trowa and the officer. At last reaching his destination, Heero quickly darted out of the room and into the hallway on the other side of the doorway, where Duo was leaning against the wall, waiting.

"Well, I certainly filled up my excitement quota for the month," said Duo, leaning in so his lips were brushing Heero's ear as he whispered.

Heero shot him a look as if to say, ÔAre you kidding?' Duo met the expression evenly, shrugging and offering Heero an innocent smile.

Moments later, the pair heard Trowa tying off the conversation with the officer at the front desk. "Yeah, I'll see you later too," he was saying as he approached the back hall where they were. "Hope your team wins the game. Right, bye." With that, Trowa appeared in the doorway and, with his hands stretched in front of him, started to usher Heero and Duo down the hall without a word.

A bit farther down the hall, Trowa stopped and fished for his key ring again. Producing it, he unlocked the door they had stopped in front of, and quickly stepped inside, closing the door behind his two friends as soon as they had entered. In the dark room, the only things they could see were the illuminated squares of many television screens, which Heero and Duo soon realized were displaying the camera feeds for the security tapes all over the station. "Just a quick detour," said Trowa as he neared the wall of screens, the whitish-gray light casting an eerie glow on his cheeks.

"I'm still amazed by all this. I can't believe you're able to pull all this off, Tro," Duo said as he watched Trowa calmly disconnect all the cameras and replace any footage of them with some plain recordings from the night before. He did it all so quickly and efficiently, one might have thought that he had been specially trained in such infiltration techniques.

"I'm also impressed," said Heero. "I hope something good comes out of all this work you've been doing to help Quatre."

Even in the darkness, both Heero and Duo could tell that Trowa had paused for a reflective moment. "Me too," he replied softly before returning to work. The fact that all the footage was electronically stored made Trowa's job easier. Once he was satisfied that there would be no positive records of them ever being there, Trowa turned away from the monitors, announcing, "Alright, now let's go see Quatre."

Exiting the room and locking it again, Trowa led Heero and Duo further down the hall, which ended at a heavy, metal door with many locks, next to which was a keypad for a digital code. He quickly undid all the manual locks with one hand, the other quickly flying over the keypad as it typed in the five-digit code to open the electronic locking mechanism. There was a low, clicking noise as the deadbolt slid back, and then a quiet groan as Trowa pushed the door inwards.

"This is where Q's been?" Duo gaped when he got a good view of the drab hallway where the holding cells were. The overhead lights were off, and the place was glowing with only the subtle shine of the moon, which streamed in through the barred windows in each cell. "Jeez, would it have killed them to just have him under house-arrest or something?" Duo said as he started down the concrete hall, looking left and right at each cell he passed. Trowa followed a few steps behind him, and Heero brought up the rear with the tea.

As he neared one of the cells towards the end of the hall, Trowa started to speak. "Quatre, look who's come to...." He trailed off as he came to a stop, blinking at the empty cell in confusion. "Quatre?" he called out tentatively.

"Where is he?" Heero asked as he came to stand beside his brother, looking past the bars at the neatly-made cot inside the cell.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" Duo demanded, his eyebrows furrowed angrily over his nose as he frowned at Trowa. He stomped away, looking up and down the hall at each and every cell, as if he was expecting Quatre to be in one of the others. All he found was one other occupied cell, where the lump of a body underneath a blanket was settled on the cot.

"I... I don't understand. Did he manage to get away?" said Trowa, still staring at the empty cell Quatre had been in, disbelief written all over his face. "He was here right before I left! Surely he would have said something if he meant to escape." Heero and Duo stood on either side of the flabbergasted Trowa, both equally confused.

After a few moments of unsure silence, Duo suddenly lost his patience. He swung his the toe of one boot into the bars of the cell, the metal grid singing and quivering with the impact. "This is total crap! Where is he!?" he moaned, his hands locked up tight in fists.

The sound of rustling sheets and rusty metal soon melded in with the dying ring of the kicked bars. "Duo? Duo Maxwell? Is that you?" called an older voice from behind the trio in the hall. "Jumpin' sassafras, it is you, Duo! I'd recognize that hair anywhere!"

Upon hearing this new voice, the three teenagers slowly turned around to face the cell behind them, which was the one other occupied one in the hall. Inside it, sitting up on the cot, was the old man who had been snuggled beneath the blanket moments before. His gray hair stuck out oddly on the sides of his head, and he wore a bright Hawaiian shirt that was almost blinding in the drab surroundings.

"Howie?" Duo's jaw dropped when he got a good look at the man. "That's you, ain't it, Howie? Man, I thought you were dead."

"Ain't no other!" said Howard with a cheerful air that didn't quite belong with a man in jail. He wasn't wearing his customary sunglasses, but there was no mistaking Howard's identity.

Excited at Howard's unexpected appearance on the scene, Duo quickly stepped across the hall to his old mentor's cell, leaning on the bars and casually carrying on the conversation with Howard as if it was the most natural thing he'd ever done. "Wow, it's been forever since I last saw you, Howie," Duo said with a grin. "Still managing to keep yourself in trouble, it seems."

Howard got off the cot and strode over towards the metal barrier, sitting down on a low wooden stool that was sitting right there. "Can't say I was ever the best role model for you, now, can I?" he said as he settled himself down on the stool, crossing one long leg over the other, leaning back against the concrete wall. "But hey, no one's perfect, right?"

Meanwhile, Heero and Trowa were watching the exchange with unsure expressions on their faces, still having trouble making sense of everything that was happening around them. Between Quatre's sudden disappearance and then Duo's unpredicted acquaintance to the other cellmate, Trowa's mind was near combusting. Heero, on the other hand, was too busy trying to piece together the many jigsaw pieces that seemed to never quite fit together right.

"Say, Howie," Duo said, his face growing serious, "d'ya know what happened to the other guy that was here?"

Howard scratched one bushy, silver eyebrow and crinkled his mouth on one side of his face. "What, you mean the little blond guy that was just over there?" he asked, looking up at Duo with his bluish-gray eyes.

"Yeah," said Duo with a nod. "Nice kid, with big eyes and a kinda quiet, but strong voice. Goes by the name of Quatre Winner."

Howard was nodding, though the look on his face was hard to place. "Yeah, yeah, I remember him. I have to say that if anything good came out of me getting landed in here, it was keeping that poor guy company, and I have to admit, it sure was nice having someone to chat up," Howard said, his eyebrows furrowing. "Not that I can anymore, of course, since his grandfather bailed him out. Was hardly an hour ago too, and I've just been trying to get some rest since--"

Duo was shaking his head, as if he was either in denial or trying to clear it of all thoughts. "No, no, wait. That can't be right," he said, his hands moving back and forth in front of him. "All of Q's grandparents are dead. There's no way his grandfather coulda bailed him out."

"Perhaps it was merely his father? Quatre's parents are older than most," Trowa supplied helpfully, though he still shrugged as he spoke.

Duo twisted around and said sarcastically to Trowa, "Oh, yeah, Ôcause Q and his dad are best friends. Ri-i-ight."

Howard leaned forward so he could look around Duo's body, cocking his head slightly when he laid eyes on Heero and Trowa. "Hey, it's the kid-cop!" he said with a look of recognition. His steely eyes flicked over towards Heero, "But I don't think I know you...."

"Heero Yuy," Heero said curtly, nodding in as formal a greeting as Howard was bound to get from the Japanese youth. "This," he inclined his head towards Trowa, "is my brother, and Duo is my... good friend."

"Uh huh," hummed Howard, amusement written in his eyes. Turning his attention back to Duo, who was standing with his arms crossed, whistling, Howard commented, "You sure know how to pick Ôem. Nice to see you've finally bagged yourself one with a shred of sanity and balance."

Trowa looked like he was going to say something about the sanity comment, while Duo shot Howard a haggard look. "Leave me Ôn' Heero alone, Howie," he snapped defensively. "You don't see me nosing into your love life, so stay the hell outta mine--it's damn creepy!"

Howard laughed at that, his gruff guffaws erupting from his throat coarsely and loudly. Slamming both feet onto the ground and leaning heavily on his knees, he said, "You never do change, do you, Duo?"

"Not for you, not for nobody," answered Duo haughtily, crossing his arms and turning up his nose. But doing so cast his eyes in Heero's direction, and he soon found himself mentally retracting the comment, because when it came down to it, the truth was that he had changed, and changed a lot at that, for Heero. The tentative smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth was enough to silently communicate this thought to Heero, who seemed to understand exactly what was going through Duo's head.

"Well, if you say so, Duo," murmured Howard, who was watching Heero and Duo with a subtle grin tracing his lips.

It was Trowa who then cut into the tender moment. "So Howard--it is Howard, isn't it?--please tell me about this man who bailed Quatre out. It's important that we know."

"Hmm, yes, about that," mused Howard, drumming on the top of one knee with his gnarled fingers. "Well, they didn't bring him back here, if that's what you're wondering. Just the night-shift copper to escort the boy out front, that's all," he informed Trowa, his eyes meeting Trowa's green ones evenly. "I tried to lean out as far as I could to see down the hall  as they were taking the kid up there, but I didn't really get a good view. Just a glimpse of an ugly old fart with long, silver hair and glasses and a cane. He looked a helluva lot like my neighbour, ironically enough."

"And that didn't strike you as peculiar in any way?" queried Trowa, who was clearly growing agitated, though not necessarily at Howard.

"Not really at the time, no," shrugged Howard, squishing one of the tufts of gray hair on the side of his head with a hand as he reached up to scratch above his ear. "I just assumed everything was legit. The whole bailing procedure seemed to go according to protocol, so I figured everything was in order."

"I see," said Trowa simply.

Heero chose that moment to cut in. He moved to stand next to Duo, leaning on the metal bars of Howard's cell as he let loose a militaristic barrage of unexpected questions. Duo stood beside his lover, flabbergasted and befuddled at the nature of some of Heero's queries, while Trowa just arched a curious eyebrow as he watched his brother.

"Whoa, slow it down, kid. I can only answer one question at a time," said Howard, sticking his arm through the bars and waving a dismissing hand at Heero, adding a low, muttered comment about the Holy Inquisition. Raising his voice back to a natural speaking volume, Howard addressed Heero again; "Now, what were you asking about there, chatterbox?"

Duo snorted, nearly spilling a loud laugh, and quickly covered it up by pretending to sneeze. He wasn't sure if it was because Heero wasn't used to Howard's particularly weird sense of humour, or if he merely wasn't sure how to react to the name Ôchatterbox', but the pensive expression adorning Heero's features was just beyond endearing to him. He had the uncontrollable urge to grin at him and throw his arms around Heero's neck.

"If the man who took Quatre away is who I think he is, then Quatre may be in danger," Heero explained, speaking with his normal, lazy drawl.

"Q's in danger no matter who took him," Duo muttered darkly. Morbid as it was, he did have a very legit point, which just made the reality of the situation even more grim for the trio.

Turning to Duo and Trowa, Heero said frankly, "I wouldn't put it past J to insert himself into this whole mess and work it to his advantage. He's been gunning for more restrictive mutant laws since forever." In a rare display of frustration, Heero grabbed the sides of his head and pulled at his shaggy, brown hair, taking a few aggravated steps away from Howard's cell as he made a low growling noise in the back of his throat.

Duo watched Heero move through the patches of ribbed moonlight, half expecting him to turn into a crazed werewolf. Though he knew Heero to be a far more emotional person than most people took him for, Duo also knew that Heero wasn't one to flaunt them, and the fact that he was being so physical in his reactions was proof that perhaps even this was a bit much for the normally calm and collected lacrosse player to handle.

It was Howard who managed to pull Heero out of his tense moment. "You said that guy's name was J?" he queried, causing Heero to drop his hands to his sides and slowly turn around to resume the conversation. "'Cause that's my psycho neighbour's name," Howard went on, his old fingers curling around the bars of his cell.

Heero's eyes blazed and widened when he heard this, though he seemed unable to summon the right words to express what he was thinking. Duo appeared shocked and a little frightened that the man who had made Heero's childhood such hell was so close, while Trowa kept his thoughts private with a perfectly impassive face.

"Shit, Howard," Duo gasped, still trying to come to terms with the facts. "That psycho's gonna make the life of another person I care about shit!" He grabbed the sides of his head and started pacing nervously, flickering between his solid and atomic states as quickly as a light bulb flashing off and on. Settling his jittery nerves, Duo flew to the bars and demanded of Howard, "You tell me right now where we can find Q and that lunatic, and we'll bust you outta here, Howie." His jaw was set and his eyes were fierce, clearly announcing the presence of Duo's darker side.

Suddenly, a strangely familiar voice echoed from down the hall. It was the officer that Heero and Duo had snuck by with Trowa's help! "Hey, rookie! Where'd you sneak off to?" he was calling, his voice rising in volume as he neared the door to the hall of holding cells.

Panic registered on Duo and Howard's faces, twin expressions of worry that had clearly been learned from one another. Glaring at the heavy-duty lock that kept the sliding, barred door of the cell firmly shut, Duo grabbed Trowa's arm and hissed, "Well, don't just stand there, Tro! Do something to get him out! He's the best lead we have to Quatre!"

Despite the many places his ring of keys was able to sneak him into, Trowa knew that one of the few locks in the entire station he didn't have the means to open were the ones on the holding cells. But quite frankly, at the moment, Trowa's foremost worry wasn't his lack of keys, but rather that there was an officer quickly approaching them, one who would not appreciate finding two unauthorized civilians standing in one of the station's most restricted areas. "Quickly!" he ordered, grabbing the back of Duo's shirt and flinging him in Heero's direction. "Hide, or get out of here! Just do something!"

"Easier said than done!" Duo grumbled as he tottered back into Heero's chest. No sooner had the longhaired youth fallen into his lover, did Heero grab Duo by the wrist and quickly tug him into one of the nearby, open cells. Wordlessly, he pulled Duo down to the cold, concrete floor with him and, wrapped around each other, rolled their tangled bodies into the inky shadows underneath the cell's rickety, little cot. Their eyes, luminous, bluish rounds that blinked from the gloomy, uncomfortable dark, watched another pair of feet join Trowa's directly in front of them, their field of vision cut off by the mattress above them. It was all they could do to dare to breathe.

"Rookie, here you are. Thought I heard voices back here. I was wondering where you'd gone off to when you weren't in the office," said the officer, his boots, for some reason, seeming to echo far louder than Trowa's did on the hard floor. The strange pair of shoes, which looked far too shiny to belong to an policeman who'd seen much field work, turned a bit away from Trowa, as if their owner was looking around. "So what are you doing back here, Rookie?" he asked, sounding almost like he was going out of his way to trip Trowa into saying something regrettable.

"This one was making a commotion," said Trowa, his whole body jerking in Howard's direction. "Just came in to check on things."

Under normal circumstances, Heero might have said that he liked being crammed in such a tiny space with Duo, but presently, he was mentally groaning about how frustrated he was growing with this constant game of hiding. His mind had been cranking a mile a minute since they had rolled themselves under the cot, which was really the only decent hiding place in the near area, and so far, he'd not been able to think of an efficient way to get out of this mess undetected. Waiting for the other policeman to leave seemed like the only plan of action at the moment, but to be honest, Heero wasn't sure how long Duo and he could hold out in such a position.

"Are you sure? Didn't sound like him complaining," the officer asked, his voice skeptical. "Is there something going on that you're not telling me about?"

 Peering through the gaggle of legs in front of him, Heero could just see into Howard's cell, unsure if he should have been relieved or not that the old man had decided to feign sleep. The slight movement Heero made as he tried to crane his neck for a better view disturbed Duo's position on the floor, causing the cot above them to creak and rattle a little. The two boys immediately froze, the sound hyper-loud to their ears.

"What was that!?" the officer cried, alarmed by the noise he just heard. It was just their luck that the cop would have picked up on their slight blunder.

"What was what?" Trowa asked, trying to play as innocent as he could, which actually was a pretty foolproof tactic he had honed well.

"That screech I just heard," said the cop, his shoes taking slow, circular steps as he turned around, no doubt trying to discern from where he'd heard the noise. "I swear to God that this late shift is getting to me. Or that it's time for me to get a new job. This place is crazy."

"Maybe," said Trowa, his voice still even and collected. To the untrained ear, it might have seemed like Trowa was hardly paying any attention to the other man at all.

"Probably," the officer enunciated. "I need to get me a life."

What are we gonna do to get ourselves out of this mess? Duo wondered to himself as he tilted his head back further to allow himself a better view of what was going on. He was on his back  with his arms around Heero's torso, the front of his body pressed against the other boy's, whose hands were planted on the floor beside his head. Somehow, even in the darkness and eerie silence between them, Duo knew that Heero was thinking the same thing as he was.

Looking up at Heero, Duo found the Japanese youth looking extremely pensive, his eyes closed, almost as if he was meditating. His lips were moving in an almost silent chant, and for a second, Duo thought that maybe his lover was whispering some sort of prayer. But upon closer inspection, Duo realized what Heero was actually mouthing.

"Open, open, open...."

A metallic groan slowly began to rise in volume, at first a dull whisper, and now like a desperate shout. Howard suddenly sat bolt upright in his cell, staring at the bars with a look of disbelief on his face. The feet of Trowa and the other cop were staggering about as they tried to discover the source of the noise.

"Open, open, open...."

Then Duo realized it. Tilting his head back into the position that allowed him to see out from under the bed, Duo watched as the barred door to Howard's cell slowly began to roll aside. That loud noise must have been the lock and the hinges, Duo figured as he watched with wide, amazed eyes. No matter how many times he saw it, Heero's ability to move things without even touching them never ceased to amaze him.

"That's it; now I know this place is haunted," decided the officer as he backed up into Trowa.

"Open, dammit!" Heero suddenly shouted as his blue eyes snapped open, his voice sounding alien after his low, muttered grouse.

The cell door's slow progress quadrupled in speed when Heero shouted, flying open in a blurred woosh of silver metal. Inside the cell, Howard was staring at the now-open door like he had just seen a miracle, and it hardly took him a second to leap to his feet and dash out to freedom. "Damned if I stay in there!" he shouted gleefully as he shoved the officer on his way out, pushing with surprising strength for an old man, and moving with even more shocking speed.

"Holy shit, he's getting away!" cried the officer as he recovered from the shove. Just as Heero had expected, the policeman hardly wasted any time in dashing down the hall after his escaped prisoner, leaving Trowa to his own devices.

When they were sure that the other policeman wasn't an immediate threat anymore, Heero and Duo wriggled out from underneath the bed. Finally able to stand upright, Heero put a hand at the base of his neck and cracked the sore bones there with a twist of his head, while Duo obsessively dusted at his clothes.

"Very smooth, Heero," said Trowa with an approving nod.

"Yeah, but Howie was our one lead to Quatre and that J guy, and now we don't know where he's gone off to," Duo pointed out as he continued to dust himself off. Peering over his shoulder so he could see what he was doing, he didn't notice the way Heero's eyes seemed to mist and cloud with some euphoric haze every time his hand smacked a puff of dust from the seat of his black jeans.

"I'm certain he'll turn up again," said Trowa confidently, as if there was no other how or why about it. He was silent for a thoughtful moment, folding one arm across his chest and touching his lower lip with the hand of his other, before speaking up again. "You don't think he'll get himself caught again, do you?"

"Nah. If Howie makes a mistake once, he'll never make it again. Not that he makes many mistakes to begin with," said Duo, lifting one leg and beating the inside of his thigh free of dust, still oblivious to Heero's lust-filled gaze.

"Well, it's settled then," decided Trowa, still stroking his chin. "Our next move is to find Howard, who will lead us to J and Quatre." There was a steeled expression in Trowa's green eyes that blazed like burning coals. It was plain as the morning rays, which were just beginning to creep across the sky outside, that Trowa would never be forgiving towards the ones who had taken advantage of Quatre's situation.

And neither would Heero or Duo.

(x) X (x)

a.n.: Sorry it took me a while to post; things are getting a bit hectic and nerve-wracking on my end. Hm, not much else to say besides the a credit to Jimi Hendrix for the chapter title.

<< Last
Next >>