~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is Your Pleasure, Sir?
by Carole
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***
Chapter 1 : Enter the Players
***

Some say that people are merely players on the stage
of life.

\\the curtains rise\\

The scenery and actors revealed, forced to play their
parts whether they wish it or no. Does it matter if
the play is good or bad? Are there reviewers and
critics to please? Only once the play has ended, the
parts played out, can the actors know. 

\\the curtain falls\\

For the actors, there is no standing ovation, no
encore. There is only one thing.

\\silence\\

Or is there...

***

With slow deliberation, he made the adjustments. It
had to be perfect, nothing less was acceptable. After
a morning spent modifying the original design for
better aerodynamics, Chang Wufei, Preventor Agent and
ex-Gundam Pilot, was ready. Laid out before him were
the fruits of his labor, a carefully prepared barrage,
and he smiled grimly. It was time.

With all the precision of his terrorist training, he
aimed and let loose the first object, which made a
beeline for its target. Another followed. Then
another.

Sky-blue eyes snapped up to meet his as a hand caught
the paper crane, crushing its delicate folds before it
could become in tangled with its predecessors in a
mass of platinum blond hair.

"Will you stop doing that?" Zechs' pleasant baritone
tried for annoyance, but only managed to sound amused
as he looked over the army of origami Wufei had
arranged on his desk. "Well, at least its original,
though I still don't know how that managed to take you
all day."

He couldn't help the vaguely offended expression that
came over his face. These were not just folded paper
birds; they had been made taking into account Zechs'
height, distance to his desk and their own weight. It
would never have taken this long for him to make
simple ornaments.

Wufei could not let such injustice stand. "The first
design was not flight worthy. By increasing the wing
width and adding a curve here," he said, picking up
one of the cranes and pointing, "I managed to create
more lift. I also had to modify the neck design, since
it made it unbalanced. Finally, each fold must be
perfect. Otherwise, one side will overbalance and
cause it to crash."

His partner blinked a few times at his explanation
before leaning back in his chair and nodding. What he
said, though, was unexpected. "We really need to get
out of this office, don't we?"

Wufei looked down at his desk with its folded paper
and sketched crane designs. **Zechs may have a
point,** he thought.

"I want the things that happened in the past to never
happen again, but sometimes..." 

"...you really wish we had a mission to go on."

The last of the Dragon Clan nodded. It was pathetic,
but true. He was bored. There had been no missions in
two weeks and even his partner's usually more than
acceptable company was wearing thin in this confined
space. They were even caught up on the usual piles of
paperwork that accumulated in the office.

"We could..."

Zechs' cut him off. "No, we're banned from the gym for
the next few days. Pentogle doesn't want us scaring
her trainees for a while, remember?"

"They're potential Preventor agents, not children. She
shouldn't be babying them."

"It's her deeply hidden mothering streak." Both had to
smile. If she had a mothering streak, it was very
deeply buried indeed. "Or she doesn't want to share
their pain with anyone else. Plus, she doesn't like us
that much."

Actually, Zechs was disliked merely from association
and didn't know the true reason for the antagonism.
When she had become a Preventor and taken over the
physical training of new agents she'd mistaken him for
one of her students. He'd only been passing through
her class, but she'd decided to make an example of him
for not paying attention. It had backfired miserably.

"No, she doesn't. Stupid woman." It should have been
obvious that he was not one of those ham-handed
beginners, especially since that was not the first
lesson she'd had with them.

"There's that new place two blocks down. It looks
rather nice. We could call in a bomb threat then
volunteer to investigate."

If it had been two weeks ago, Wufei would have looked
at him in shock, especially given both their past
associations. Now, unfortunately, it was almost
looking like a good idea.

"Actually, I'm more partial to Fecillini's down on
Fifth."

Blue eyes rolled upwards and stared at the artificial
lighting on the ceiling imploringly. "I've created a
monster. I never should have introduced you to Italian
food."

He couldn't help but smile. That had been one of the
nicest nights he'd had in a long time, and he
certainly hadn't minded the envious stares in his
direction over his "date".

"Do my eyes deceive me? You're smiling."

If he had been Maxwell, he would have batted his eyes
and whined in a falsetto feminine voice about Zechs
bringing out the best in him, before pouting and
asking about his favorite restaurant, but Wufei had
more pride than that and couldn't sink that low.
Instead, he quirked an eyebrow. "Fecillini's?"

"If you want, though maybe we should skip the bomb
threat and wait until after work."

They both unconsciously glanced toward the clock.
Three hours. For the first time in a long while, Wufei
was hoping that a mission wouldn't come up and he
restrained this inner satisfaction with the aid of
long practice.

***

Beep.

Two pairs of hands jerked towards the com, but Zechs’
was faster. **Not now,** Wufei thought, but waited
impassively as the call was answered. There was only a
half hour to go. Why couldn't this have waited until
tomorrow?

"Wind here."

There was a slight giggle. **It's Maxine, again.** He
gave his best attempt at telepathy to tell Zechs to
turn the bloody thing off. It was clear the other
Preventor understood.

"Can I speak to Wufei, please?"

"Oh certainly, he's right here." Zechs smiled,
ignoring the glares of death sent in his direction.

**I'll get you for that, Merquise.**

"Hi, Wufei. Umm... I was wondering, well, ummm..." The
woman on the screen blushed. "Well, the floor is
getting together and going over to Joe's after work
and we wondered it you wanted to come..."

That wasn't what she'd been going to say and he knew
it. He glared with all his might at the screen, which
threatened to spontaneously combust.

"And, um, your partner's invited too, of course." She
waited expectantly, as did Zechs who was trying not to
laugh.

"No, we're busy." 

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, I guess I'll say good-bye
then."

He clicked the machine off without a word of parting.
"Ancestors!" he swore. "Stupid woman!" At least it
hadn't been a mission.

His partner chuckled. "I wonder if she would have run
off to organize a gathering if you'd agreed. You
should just arrange a date with her and show her a
horrible time."

"Do you think it will work?"

"I speak from experience."

"I doubt you could ever show someone a bad..." He was
cut off suddenly.

Beep.

He flicked the screen on impatiently, but the face
that greeted him was not Maxine.

"Lady Une."

He sensed Zechs nod of greeting behind him.

Her voice was icy. "I have a mission for you. The
briefing will be in my office in fifteen minutes."

He jerked his head sharply in assent. It looked like
Fellicini's would have to wait.

***

"One of our teams is gone. Ten of our men were wiped
out on E-19938." The dark haired woman's eyes narrowed
dangerously. "Who ever did this tore them apart. They
weren't able to find all the pieces."

Zechs could feel the anger poring off of her, at the
culprits and at herself for letting this happen. He
would have sensed it even knowing her less well than
he did and inside felt a growing horror at the
situation.

He and Wufei sat at attention across from the
Preventor Head. Her eyes shifted between the two of
them, since they were the only ones summoned to this
briefing. Lady Une wove her fingers together in front
of her and continued.

"They were trying to take into custody a small time
fencer with ties to a suspected piracy ring they were
investigating. These were not amateurs, all were
experienced soldiers. One, Philip DeTerron, I believe
served under you in Nairobi." She nodded at him and he
vaguely recalled a husky voice and curly dark hair. He
lowered his eyes in acknowledgement momentarily and
exchanged a glance with Wufei. The Chinese man looked
as troubled as he felt. Preventor teams didn't just
get wiped out and to die unexpectedly in such a way
was unthinkable. This was trouble and they both knew
it.

"I'm putting you two on this because you're the best
we have." She handed Zechs a folder containing papers
and disks. "This is what we know about the group they
were investigating and the deaths. You can get any
backup you need, call in outside help if you choose,
but I want those responsible found. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," they voiced in unison. What else was
there to say? And to think that they'd wished for a
mission to liven things up. Someone must have been
listening.

***

"We're not going there alone, even just to
investigate."

Wufei snorted in agreement. The pair were back in
their office once again. The clock had long since past
the time they'd been planning to leave, but that
didn't matter anymore. "A large team is too obvious
and too dangerous if we have to baby-sit them." He ran
his finger along the edge of the desk and tapped it
lightly on its surface. A small, competent group would
be best. He knew far too well from previous experience
how dangerous things could get for those not able to
keep up, one dead and two seriously injured partners
had seen to that.

"One or two to watch our backs then. We can call in
help if we actually find anything." Zechs, painfully,
had had similar experiences.

It was a question of who to ask. Most Preventors were
good, but, given the choice, were not ones he'd have
watching his back. The few he would have asked weren't
available. He closed his eyes and wished Sally was
still here. Finally, he opened them and looked at
Zechs. The answer was obvious.

Quatre was now running the Winner Empire, Trowa was
working as his bodyguard, so they wouldn't be
feasible, but there were two remaining possibilities,
both of whom were likely together at the moment. 

As if sensing his thoughts, the former Lightning Count
spoke.

"Heero."

"Hmmm. I'll call Maxwell tonight. He follows Yuy
around like a love sick puppy and will know where he
is."

"You don't like him that much, do you?"

Wufei didn't respond to the question. "I'll make the
travel arrangements. We should be able to leave
tomorrow morning."

Zechs grabbed the case file. "I'll go over these." He
walked towards the door, then turned around at the
entrance. "Make sure you get some sleep too, Wufei. I
think we're going to be busy for a while." With that,
he left, closing the door behind him.

***

"Hey, Wu-man, to what do I owe the pleasure?" From
anyone else, the name would have triggered a scathing
salvo of insults, but with Maxwell, it was useless.
Since there was no point in trying, he let it alone.

A cheerfully smiling Duo filled the screen, his eyes
wide and his mouth dimpled. Wufei's lips formed a
narrow line cutting across him face. This was serious
and he was not in the mood to mince words. "There's a
situation. We'd like to call you and Yuy in. Is he
around?"

The perpetual smile fell a bit and a flash of pain
flickered through his eyes. "He left."

A surprised "what" slipped out before he could stop
it. This was unexpected. The braided pilot's feelings
would have been obvious to a stone and Heero's gruff
acceptance of them had spoken volumes about his own
affection, even to Wufei.  But now was not the time to
coddle Maxwell's feelings. Feeling slightly guilty, he
asked, "Do you know where he is?"

Violet eyes would have appeared stone dead if not for
the threatening condensation in their corners and his
face went blank. "No. I came home from work, he had
his stuff packed and told me he was leaving. He
refused to tell me where he was going and why." The
dead eyed stare stopped pounding into him when Duo
closed his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "I
don't know what I was thinking. I should have known
better than to expect him to care for me. Idiot! And
he was right about that too."

It was disturbing to watch the cheerful mask slip back
into place. It was like a switch had been flipped and
now the usual Duo, the hyperactive idiot, was once
again in control. Wufei wondered if he typical grin
was a much of an act as this one.

Words fired out too fast to respond to. "So, you want
me to come in, huh? Did Sally put you up to this?
How's she doing anyway?"

If he had touched on a painful subject for Maxwell,
the other boy had returned the favor. "Sally's been on
maternity leave for five months."

"So you finally..." The look on Wufei's face must have
spoken for him. "No, huh? Whose is it?"

"Her fiancée's, Simon, down from public relations."
Even the name was sour on his tongue.

"Ah, man, I'm sorry. I had no idea."

Wufei grunted. It didn't matter, he and Sally had
never been meant to be together anyway. "We've been
sent to investigate the deaths of several Preventors
on E-19938..."

"And you want backup. I get it."

"So, Maxwell, you'll do it? You can say no. These
killings were vicious."

"Well, Hilde can run things fine for herself for a
while and I can handle myself. I think I need to leave
to sort things out anyway. So, who's 'we' with Sally
gone? It can't be another woman, since I doubt they'd
put up with you."

"Zechs Merquise."

"You're working with HIM! And you haven't killed each
other?"

"Lady Une thought it was a good idea. We work rather
well together," he replied with dignity.

"And we all know how stable she is," Maxwell muttered,
mainly to himself. Though he respected the work she
was doing with the Preventors, it was obvious he had
never totally forgotten her attempt to blackmail the
Gundams using the colonies.

"It was a perfectly good idea." He was probably making
a mistake with this confession, but he couldn't let
the braided idiot mock one of the few women he had any
respect for. "One of my new partners died, through his
own carelessness, two others were severely injured on
duty within a month. He'd had the same problem since
coming back from Mars without Noin. No one else was
willing to work with us at that point. Called it 'the
Curse.' At least we know that the other is good enough
to take care of himself."

"That explains why you were assigned together, but I'm
surprised that you can actually stand each other,
given your past histories."

The worst of the confession was over. What difference
would it make? "Well, we spent about two weeks glaring
at each other, but it just became ridiculous. The past
is past. Neither of us can change it." He glowered at
the screen.

"Okay, okay... sorry I asked." Duo held his hands up
defensively. "When are you two leaving?"

"As soon as possible."

"I'll meet you there, then. It's faster."

"You're sure?"

"Oy, of course. Just make sure you have some official
looking ID for me, it'll make things a bit easier."

Wufei nodded. "We're coming on 837 shuttle."

"See you there, then." His hand reached up to turn off
the machine.

"Duo?" The Preventor's voice was soft.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about Heero."

"Well, you said it. The past is past. I'll just have
to look forward from now on." He sighed. "Bye, Wu."

The picture turned to static as the connection was
cut. 

TBC...