Fractured Thoughts

Duo stretched and yawned as he watched the business men troop out of the board room “Damn, that another three hours of my life I’ll never get back. How do you stand all these meetings Quat? What was with the guy who talked really slowly and went on for an hour about rearranging some form?”

The blond haired CEO grinned at his old friend “I find these meetings go much quicker if I think about other things. I’m going to my nieces birthday party tomorrow and I was wondering how I could convince Trowa to come, to entertain the kids.”

“Yes, well we wouldn’t want the kids to be bored now would we?”

Duo grinned striding out the door “Come on Mr. Winner, what torture do we have in store for us next?”

“Don’t worry Duo we have a break from meetings. I’ve pencilled in the next hour for tea with Dorothy Catalonia.”

“You have got to be kidding me, I have to sit through an hour of you and Miss ‘wars are so beautiful’ full naming each other. Do I have to come?”

“You’re supposed to be my bodyguard Duo, you won’t be much good if you’re somewhere else.”

“You don’t need a bodyguard Quatre, I pity the poor innocent criminal who attacks you. Besides don’t you have 40 or so fanatical maguanacs ready to serve your every whim?”

“Yes but Lady Une called and begged me to take you off her hands after half of the Preventers threatened to quit over see-through shower curtains and invisible ink.”

“See I knew this was some sort of torture devised by Une to get back at me. I’m being persecuted, Heero was just as much to blame as me, he gets to go off on some mission to Hawaii with Wufei and Trowa and I get stuck here listening to business men discuss the size of the boxes in personnel review forms. Now I have to go and brave the horrors of Dorothy.”

“She’s going to help us.” Duo looked at Quatre with incredulity “Well neither of us are getting very far with our love lives and Dorothy offered to help us with some plans.”

Duo shuddered at the prospect of a plan cooked up between Quatre and Dorothy, feeling momentarily sorry for the unsuspecting Trowa. He did a quick double take “What do you mean us? You’ve included me in this madness, I was doing perfectly fine on my own.”

“Right, that’s why you and Heero are still dancing round each other. Besides, what sort of a bodyguard would leave me alone in a room with someone who tried to kill me?”

Watching Quatre and Dorothy fence (metaphorically, no actual swords were involved this time) was much more entertaining than the meetings Duo had been trapped in for most of the last week. Dorothy was oh so polite and yet at the same time sharply cutting, whilst Quatre had with a deceptively gentle grace side stepped or deflected each barbed remark. Taking another sip of her tea Dorothy decided to start on the reason for the meeting “So tell me, what have you two been doing about your love lives? Neither of you seem to have made any progress at all.”

“That’s not true at all” Quatre protested

“Oh no, then pray tell me where have you stashed the delectable Mr. Barton? Do you have him tied up upstairs or locked in a cupboard somewhere perhaps?” Dorothy raised a pointed eyebrow at the silent Quatre. “You can win a war and run a multinational corporation but you can’t get one poor circus clown into bed?” returning her tea cup to the table Dorothy clasped her hands together “What about you Duo Maxwell? You had better get a move on if you want to catch pilot 01. You both simply must stop messing around and go get yourself a pilot ."

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do? I’ve tried becoming his friend, flirting with him, flirting with other people to make him jealous and what do I have to show for it? When it comes to observing other people Heero’s a master, when it comes to me he is completely oblivious.”

“Enough of this subtle making them jealous or becoming their friends. If you want to capture a man you will have to take drastic action.”

“What exactly do you suggest Dorothy?”

“Well….”

Heero, Trowa and Wufei collected their luggage from the shuttleport lounge, Wufei scanned the area for the tenth time in as many minutes “Do you two get the feeling we’re being watched?”

“Duo and Quatre, The maguanacs have been trailing us since we got off the shuttle.” Heero jerked a thumb in the direction of a tall Arabic man who was trying to look inconspicuous at a newspaper stand.

“This doesn’t worry you?” Wufei asked incredulously “Who knows what terrible plan they have, we’re going to get to the car and find it dyed luminous orange or something.”

Wufei cell phone rang after glaring at it in suspicion he answered it “What are you doing Maxwell?”

He listened for a minute “That’s ridiculous, why would I help you….”

There was another pause as Duo tried to convince him “Alright if it will mean the end to this nonsense.”

Sighing Wufei turned to his companions “Sorry about this.” he said as he stepped back a pair of darts flew through the air each striking their targets who were then rushed by a blond and brunette streaks of lightening and wrestled into submission.

Quatre turned to a pair of maguanacs and gestured for them to carry the tied and unconscious gundam pilots. Duo grinned a thank you at Wufei who was trying to pretend he had nothing to do with the strange scene whilst keeping well meaning bystanders from interfering or calling security.

Duo turned to Quatre “You know, for all the planning we did this was a remarkably simple plan.”