Part 8

Treize awoke slowly to the sound of a shrill woman's voice, seemingly talking to herself while standing over him.

"...so I said to that John that if I he ever put his grubby paws on me again, I'd take out his *other* leg!"

Pause. Hands toyed with the fabric of his sweater and then smoothed the escaping strands of hair away from his forehead. He forced himself not to flinch with an effort.

"Well, that's what I thought! I mean, can you imagine?"

Pause. Footsteps led away with the click of high heels. He cracked one eye open and saw the back of a woman in a nurse's uniform, wearing a phone headset. Her high whining laugh assaulted his ears.

"*Exactly!* And the funniest thing about it is, he was in traction!"

She grabbed the doorknob of the door and closed it behind her without looking, abruptly cutting off the sound of her continuing laughter.

He opened his other eye and looked around cautiously. He was a small room containing little except two cots, an ancient television set, and a telephone. Streetlamp light struggled between the slats of the cheap blinds on the window. Duo, in the other cot, sat up abruptly and looked around, then turned a serious face on Treize.

"Where are we?"

Treize slid off of his cot and carefully looked through the window, parting the slats of the blinds only enough to peak through. A truck heaped with crates rumbled past, and when it passed by, he saw a plane begin to taxi away from him. "We're still in the spaceport. I assume they found us and brought us to their medical facility," he replied.

"I guess we missed our flight, huh?" Duo said weakly.

Treize turned away from the window and faced the boy. "Duo, you do realize that it was Wufei who knocked us unconscious, don't you?"

Duo nodded slowly. "I know. But do *you* realize that it would have been easier for him to have killed us, instead of knocking us unconscious? And he didn't."

Treize also nodded. "Yes."

"All right, then. We have to get to L5, somehow," Duo pronounced, hopping out of bed. "But first we need to escape from this hospital without anyone seeing us and asking awkward questions like, 'what the hell were we doing trying to get on that freighter without tickets?'"

Treize smiled and moved out of the way of the chattering Gundam pilot as he made his way to the window. Without ceremony, Duo drew the blind out of the way and pulled a slender stiletto knife out of his hair. With a look of intense concentration on his face, he jimmied the window out of its frame and watched with satisfaction as it fell to the ground and shattered on the tarmac.

"All right, then, let's go," he pronounced, swinging a leg over the ledge and looking back at the General. "You coming?"

"Of course," Treize replied, trying determinedly to keep the bubbling laughter out of his voice. Duo flashed him a grin and swung his other leg out the window, dropping out of sight.

Treize squeezed himself out of the window with slightly more difficulty, but reached the ground without incident. Glass crunched under his feet as he landed, and the two of them moved away quickly, walking along the wall of the building towards the area where the planes and ships seemed to be in greatest concentration.

"First," Treize said. "We need to find out when the next ship to L5 is, and find a way to be on it." He glanced down at Duo and discovered that the boy had already produced a small hand-held computer and was typing at great speed. "What are you doing?"

"Finding out when the next ship to L5 is. The port's got all of its departures on the web, so it doesn't even take any hacking. Just give me a minute."

Treize fell silent, realizing that any further input from him would be pointless. Duo already seemed to have their next move worked out. A few minutes later Duo's typing stilled and he grinned up at Treize victoriously.

"I've got good news!" he said enthusiastically.

"What's that?" Treize replied.

"There's another supply ship headed out about fifteen minutes from now. If we can get on it, we'll only be about an hour behind Wufei."

"That's wonderful!" Treize said, feeling his flagging spirits rise again. "Which ship is it?"

Duo's face fell. "That's the problem, I don't know where 'gate 23' is from outside, and by the time we circled around, got inside, and found it, we'd probably have missed it. And that's assuming they didn't arrest us the moment they saw us."

"Do you know the serial number of the ship?" Treize asked.

"Yeah," Duo replied. They changed course to move around the fuselage of a ship and Duo glanced up at it as they continued on their way.

"What is it? Maybe we'll be lucky enough to see it from outside."

Duo's eyes widened and he pointed upwards at the ship they'd just passed. "It's that one." He looked back at Treize and grabbed his arm. "That's the ship! We just need to get on it and we'll go to L5! Come on!"

He dragged on Treize's arm as he headed quickly towards the stern. They passed a crew of engineers working in an open panel in the belly of the ship, but none of them paid any attention to the strangers. Treize followed Duo as they crept from shadow to shadow, taking advantage of the gloom to work their way forward until they were crouching under the loading ramp. A large baggage train had been used to carry crates to the ship and two workers were operating small forklifts, trundling up and down the ramp to fetch crates from the train and load them into the freighter.

"Now what?" Treize whispered.

"Just be quiet and keep your head down. When I come back, follow me as quickly and quietly as you can, got it?" Duo whispered back.

" 'Come back'?" Treize repeated, but Duo had already moved towards the last car in the train, which was still full of crates. The boy was almost invisible in the darkness as he made his way over until he was hidden only by the shadow of the train. There was an eternity of anticipation, and then Duo did something near the tire and the train suddenly listed. Three crates came tumbling to the ground with a thundering crash. They broke open and spilled their contents across the pavement.

Duo streaked towards him and didn't slow down as he ducked under the loading ramp, grabbed Treize's hand and hauled him after him. They ran under the loading ramp and emerged at the opposite side of the ship from the destruction Duo had wrought. They paused a moment to wait for the workers to move out of sight as they investigated the noise, then sped up the platform.

Duo led him towards the rear of the hold, through a virtual maze of crates and bags and boxes, while every moment Treize expected to hear a cry of discovery from behind them. When they were close to the centre of the cavernous space, Duo pushed Treize into a small, protected space between two boxes and then wedged himself in afterwards.

And they waited.

Treize was uncomfortably aware of Duo's lithe body pressed against him, and of the cool wash of his breath against his throat. Between the close space, the terror of discovery, and the heat of Duo's body, Treize found himself bathed in sweat within minutes. Finally, a great echoing clang told them that the loading doors had been closed, and Duo slowly squirmed off of Treize, then offered him a hand.

"Come on out. We have to be on top of the crates and stuff when we take off. I wouldn't want to be in between them if they started to shift."

Treize pictured the outcome of that and wished he hadn't. "Good idea."

As the almost-imperceptible feeling of motion told him they were on their way, the twosome searched through the supplies for anything that would be useful during the trip to L5. Freighters moved slowly, especially now that mines were strung throughout space, and any suspicious ships were more likely to be shot down without even a warning, so the trip would probably last at least 12 hours.

Treize's stomach lurched as they left the ground and he pressed himself to the top of the box he was on to wait out the climb out of Earth's gravity well. Travelling in space in a cargo hold was not nearly as comfortable as doing it in a passenger vessel!

"Wait a minute," Treize muttered as a horrible thought occurred to him. "Duo!" he called urgently.

Duo's voice sounded a few feet away. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Don't they usually decompress cargo holds like this one? They don't want to waste the oxygen."

"Yeah, but we'll be okay," Duo pronounced.

"How can you be sure?" Treize replied urgently.

Duo raised a hand with some effort and rapped on the large crate he was lying on. It clucked. "Chickens. There's livestock in here. They wouldn't decompress that."

Treize was impressed. "You knew this when we got on, didn't you! How did you know?"

Duo grinned ruefully. "Sorry, General, sir. Until you said that about decompression it hadn't occurred to me. We're just very, very lucky."

Treize stopped fighting gravity and laid his head down on the box, closing his eyes. Splinters prickled his face just enough to be irritating, but not painful. This was going to be a long flight.

When the punishing press of acceleration slacked off and eased into the weightlessness of space, Duo finally let go of the crate of chickens and allowed himself to float free. His braid snaked out behind him, even more like a living thing than usual, as the boy slowly turned in mid-air.

Treize lifted his head and watched Duo miserably as he headed away. Now the nausea from weightlessness was starting to set in, even as a pounding headache from the sudden shifts of gravity took residence behind his temples. "What are you doing?" he asked, secretly hoping it didn't involve any movement on Treize's part. Duo performed a languid pirouette and finished upside-down and facing the General, a wide grin on his face. The change in perspective sent Treize's stomach flip-flopping again and he ferverently wished for an acceleration couch.

*This is the last time I fail to fly first-class,* he vowed silently.

"I'm looking for some food and blankets, Treize. It'll probably get cold in here, despite the chickens, and we're going to be here a while." Then the boy noticed Treize's discomfiture and his face creased in concern. "Something wrong?"

Treize cleared his throat, tried to will away the nausea and failed. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?" he said bravely.

Duo shrugged, still upside-down. The action sent him slowly drifting away again. "Maybe because you're white as a sheet and heading rapidly towards green?"

"I," Treize slowly eased himself upright, still holding onto the box with a death's grip. "I'm fine. I'm just not used to travelling this way," he bluffed, then frowned as Duo began almost to convulse with laughter. The movements of his body sent him careening towards the ceiling and Treize winced, visualizing a painful collision, but Duo simply planted his feet and pushed off towards the General again, still giggling madly.

Somehow Duo managed to brake his forward momentum before crashing into Treize and he landed neatly by grasping onto the edge of the box Treize was sitting on and swinging his legs forward to straddle it. Suddenly the General found himself nose-to-nose with the Gundam pilot, who was still grinning from ear to ear.

"Feeling a little nauseous, are ya? I thought you used to fly Mobile Suits?" Duo taunted, his breath bathing Treize's face with a faint scent of toothpaste and bubblegum.

"I *do* fly Mobile Suits," Treize retorted. "It was the shifts in gravity that upset my inner ear. I'll be fine in a minute."

"Sure, sure," Duo replied. "Here, try this..." he said, then he captured Treize's mouth in a kiss.

Despite himself, Treize found himself responding whole-heartedly, letting go of the box to crush the boy to him and not even noticing that they were now floating free. When Duo's tongue probed, he opened his mouth to permit the entrance, and suddenly felt a small spherical object ejected towards the back of his throat. He let go of Duo and swallowed convulsively, and the object slid down his throat.

"What was that?" he exclaimed angrily.

"Take your medicine like a good boy, Treize," Duo said, his voice coming from somewhere above him. Treize looked up reflexively and realized that Duo was sitting on a box above, well, below him, and that meant that he was upside-down looking up at the floor. And he didn't feel disoriented anymore.

"What was that?" Treize repeated, a little more calmly this time.

"Your basic space-age anti-nauseant. It's especially good for dealing with headaches, nausea and disorientation caused by changes in the force of gravity on the body."

Treize smiled. "You sound like an advertisement, Duo."

Duo grinned back and pushed gently off, floating towards Treize. "I should, I made the pill in my backyard. I invented it during my colony-hopping days before I nearly got spaced and ended up flying DeathScythe."

A slight course correction took Duo around the gaping Treize and then back towards the supplies. "Come on, General, let's get organized. We've got a long flight."

By the time the temperature in the cargo hold had dropped enough that a blanket was needed, Duo and Treize had finished their inventory and gathered them in a spherical pile in the approximate centre of the hold. It wasn't much; enough ration bars to last them the flight, plus a few days in case it took them a while to locate Wufei, an emergency blanket for shock victims from the kit on the wall, a stout crowbar (for 'taking out baddies once we run out of bullets', according to Duo), and a change of clothes that Treize ferverently hoped would fit them in a pinch.

The ship was loaded with emergency supplies for L5 and they hadn't felt right taking any more than that, despite the fact that they had spotted numerous other things that would be useful - first aid kits, for one. The fact was, the people of L5 would need those things more than they would.

Duo tapped a rolled-up pair of jeans lightly to send it back into the rapidly-dispersing pile and sighed. "Now what?"

Treize shivered. "I think we stow these things somewhere safe and curl up with the blanket."

Duo rotated until they were oriented to the same local vertical, then looked at him inscrutably while pushing the blanket at Treize. "Here, you take the first turn with the blanket, I'll stow the stuff." He turned away and started gathering the pile into his arms while Treize blinked in surprise.

*What's gotten into him? First he kisses me to get that pill into my mouth, then he won't share a blanket with me?* the General wondered. He shook his head. *I suppose I'll never understand what's going on in that head of his.*

The blanket was more like a sleeping bag, with a tether at one end and a zipper up two sides so that it formed a pocket so that someone could sleep without risking floating away. Treize anchored it securely to a bulkhead and then climbed inside, relaxing in the buoyancy of zero-gravity in a way that it was impossible to do under on Earth. A few minutes later a shuddering in the tether made him look up and see Duo hanging onto it lightly with two fingers while he stretched his whole body from toes to fingertips. The movement was almost eerie as Duo went through motions that would have been impossible with gravity holding him down.

It was also extremely sexy.

When Duo had completed his acrobatics, he curled up in a ball and wrapped his free arm around his legs, his eyes tightly squeezed shut. For the first time, Treize noted that the boy was shivering with cold.

"Duo."

The Gundam pilot started and looked up at him, his face still expressionless. "Yeah?"

"There's plenty of room in here, if you want. You look cold," Treize said gently.

Duo shook his head glumly. "S-ok."

"What's wrong?"

Duo blinked at him in surprise. "Whaddaya mean?"

"An hour ago you were cavorting around the room like a puppy dog with a Frisbee, and now you seem... sad, and withdrawn. What's going on?"

The boy glanced away and bit his lip. "It's nothing, really. I'm just worried about Wu-man. I never would have thought he would knock us out like that. What if we can't get him to come back? And-" he cut himself off, biting his lip again.

"And, what?"

"Well... I guess it's selfish of me, but..." he looked up at the General again. "What if he does come back and doesn't want or isn't able to fight in the war again? What if he wants to stay with you? Lord knows I haven't done a good job of protecting him so far, and you're so..." he sighed and shrugged. "Well, you know."

Treize disentangled his arms from the blanket and pulled himself hand-over-hand down to Duo, then wrapped the startled boy in a hug. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, if I were you. You are the one who is in the best position to understand and help Wufei. I don't think there is a force in the universe that could make him willingly leave your side."

"But," Duo protested. "he loves *you*-"

"And he loves you at least as much," Treize interrupted. "I don't intend to compete over him with you, and I won't let you do it either. If Wufei chooses one of us, then it will be one the who makes him happiest, and even if it is you that he chooses, I will be the happiest man in the world, and I will stand with him to the end."

Duo's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "You see!" he said accusingly. "I could never be that noble! All I want is for him to hold me forever. I couldn't give him away like that." He looked away again, the motion setting free a few droplets, which hung like spherical diamonds in the air. "Why did you have to be so goddamn *perfect*? Why can't you be a bastard so I can fight you for him?"

"Why can't you learn to love me as I have learned to love you?" Treize countered. When Duo turned back to him with a gasp, the older man captured his sweet lips with a kiss that quickly deepened as Duo returned it with fervour. When they broke for air, Duo stared at him, wide-eyed.

"What did you say?"

Treize smiled tenderly and caressed the boy's cheek lightly with the pad of his thumb. "Will you get into the blanket with me, or not?"

A slow smile spread across Duo's face. "I will."

A few minutes later Duo lay with his head wedged comfortably against Treize's shoulder, his body pressed full-length against the other man's. Treize's hand caressed him in a rhythmic motion down his back and arm.

Treize's words earlier had startled him, but he was starting to get used to the idea. *I mean, so what if we're enemies, right?* Duo thought. *That doesn't necessarily mean he's evil, and I can't say I believe he is, after everything that's happened. And maybe one day I'll understand why he's doing what he's doing.* He smiled. *Until then, I can give him the benefit of the doubt.* Duo sighed in pleasure and snuggled deeper into the crook of Treize's arm.

Floating in zero-grav was very unlike swimming, but gave the same feeling of total peace. It was the only way a human body could relax completely, since no part of the body had to fight the pull of gravity. Even the heart and the muscles holding the organs could relax for once. It was the second-most supremely pleasurable experience Duo could think of.

"Ne, Treize," Duo said quietly.

The motion of Treize's hand stilled. "What is it, Duo?"

"Have you ever had sex in zero-G?"

Treize started, then chuckled. "No, why?"

"Because I just remembered what my most favourite thing in the universe is," he replied. Before Treize could say anything to that, Duo ducked his head, pushed up Treize's polo shirt and nuzzled his flat, hairless stomach.

"Duo, what-"

Duo's tongue flickered in and out of Treize's navel, effectively shutting him up. Almost without conscious volition, Treize's hands wandered down and caressed the top of Duo's head, then moved down to play with the sensitive parts of his neck and ears. Duo obliged him by moving up to attack Treize's nipples with his tongue and teeth while Treize moved his hands down to play with the nubs of Duo's nipples with his fingers.

A few seconds later, Duo stopped for a moment to catch his breath, eliciting an urgent moan from Treize. "Listen," he panted. "it's hard to breathe down here!"

Treize responded to that with a chuckle. "Then let me help you," he replied, stripping off his shirt. Duo breathed the cool rush of air gratefully and grinned up at Treize.

"Enjoying yourself, yet?" He followed up the question with a playful nip to Treize's right nipple.

Treize gasped, then smiled. "Incredibly. You?"

"Of course. It'd be more fun without the blanket, though."

"But without the tether, we'll crash into the walls."

"Scared, General?" Duo replied maliciously, his grin widening.

Treize snorted delicately. "Not at all."

Duo wormed his way out of the sleeping bag, then grabbed Treize's hand as he sped away. Treize yelled and quickly disentangled himself, popping out of the bag like a bullet as Duo hauled on his arm. When they reached the opposite wall, Duo turned and planted his feet against the bulkhead, allowing his legs to absorb most of their momentum and pulling Treize in towards him so that when he pushed off - this time much more slowly - they were again pressed together length to length. They kissed, their tongues warring, as they floated towards the centre of the room. Their legs tangled together and Duo worked at the Treize's nipples again with his fingers while Treize fought with Duo's shirt buttons.

Finally Treize had freed Duo's chest and abdomen to the air and he broke the kiss to duck down and lick and suck at the smooth skin there. Duo's hands entangled in Treize's soft hair and he revelled in the spicy scent of the ginger strands. The Gundam pilot ducked his own head down to Treize's ear and he sucked and nibbled gently at the shell before whispering.

"Draw your legs up with mine, General." Treize obliged and their legs, still tangled together, were drawn up as though they were getting ready to jump. "Now, three...two...one...push off." Their legs thrust downwards together and encountered the wall, then pushed off in perfect synchronicity.

Treize stopped his attack of Duo's nipples to glance up at the boy in astonishment. "You're amazing."

Duo grinned. "Nope, just very, very experienced. There's nothing that'll ruin a mood more than a concussion." He finished pulling off his shirt, disentangled his legs, then spidered down Treize's body until his head was level with Treize's crotch. Grinning widely, he took the fly in his mouth and twisted his head so the button came free.

"What are you doing, Duo?" Treize exclaimed.

Duo drew down the zipper with his teeth, then spit it out. "Don't have a hand free. I don't want to float away from you."

"Come back up here. I'm not finished kissing you," Treize replied.

Duo flashed him another grin and rotated with a sinuous twist of his body so that his legs came 'up' and his head stayed in place, 'down' near Treize's open fly. "Kiss this, General."

He felt Treize's hands at his own fly and felt the rumble of his laughter where his chest was pressed against Treize's abdomen. "You are determined not to make this easy on me, aren't you?"

"I'm horny and I've finally gotten a chance to have sex in zero-gravity with someone I *like*. What do you want?" Duo replied, then he engulfed Treize's member in his mouth. A moment later, Treize followed suit and all speaking became impossible.

For a timeless eternity, they drowned in a sea of mutual pleasure, interrupted only when a wall loomed close and someone stuck out a hand to push off and send them in a new direction. The pressure built and built and the pace increased faster and faster until they careened full-tilt from one end of the hold to the other, somehow managing not to break the rhythm or crash into a wall. It was a fully cooperative effort, their bodies moving in and out in a synchronous dance that had no up, no down, where nothing in the world mattered but where your lover was in relationship to yourself.

Finally, the dance crescendoed and Duo came first, his entire body seeming to explode with ecstasy as he pumped hot, sticky fluid down Treize's throat. The sensation was too much for Treize and he came a moment later, crying out and convulsing so strongly that he actually cut their forward momentum and the pair hung rotating in space for a fraction of a second, shouting their pleasure into the cavernous space.

Duo summoned the energy to turn around so that he lay cheek-to-cheek with Treize and for a long time, they lay there motionless and spent, drifting aimlessly across the empty space of the cargo hold.

After a moment, Treize finally broke the silence. "I'm exhausted," he remarked.

"Yeah," Duo agreed. "Zero-G sex does that to you."

"Do you always sixty-nine when you do it this way."

"Uh-huh. Keeps the mess manageable."

Treize pictured the alternative and grimaced. "Good point."

"Ne, Treize?"

"What is it, Duo?"

"I think... I could love you, too."

"Thank you, Duo."

There was a long silence, then, "Ne, Treize?"

"Yes?"

"Can we go back to the blanket, I'm freezing my ass off out here."

Treize laughed. "Good idea." They manoeuvred back to the tethered emergency blanket and slid back inside. Duo settled his head back against Treize's chest with a contented sigh. Maybe this little threesome idea wouldn't be so bad after all. Assuming they could find Wufei, that is.

He pushed the doubt and worry out of his consciousness again and snuggled in closer to Treize, letting his eyes slide closed as he succumbed to his exhaustion.

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