F*** Siberia (Gundam Wing AC - Duo Maxwell)

[LostGirl2.0]

Soooo, no idea if anyone on here likes Gundam Wing anymore, but just in case I'm not alone... 

Here's a sick Duo fic set in the Preventers Era that I wrote a while back and have just been sitting on.  Hope you like! 

(Language warning for F-bombs and also because I had to rely on Google translate for bits, so who knows what I'm actually writing. 😅)

 

Part 1

Duo had just returned from an eight week long op in Siberia. Yep, you heard right. Si-fucking-beria. Cold, frozen wasteland where some neo-terrorist group decided to set up shop in an underground compound. How the hell they even managed to build it when the ground was frozen year round, he had no idea. As such, he was tired and nearly frostbitten, but finally felt like he only needed two layers to be warm enough instead of five, so that was a plus.

 

He stepped into his shared office, dropped his bag on the floor and flopped into a chair. It was Yuy's chair, but he was probably out running drills as it was the middle of the day so he wasn't around to gripe about it. The three extra feet he'd have to make it to his own seat just seemed like too much right then.  He leaned down and pulled his laptop out of his bag, listening to it whine as it slowly booted it up. He tugged his gloves off since they were too clunky to type in but left his thermal jacket, insulated pants, and snow boots on. His shoes squeaked loudly on the wooden floor as he shifted his aching body in the chair. He was probably going to leave a giant puddle of water under Yuy's desk. Heero was definitely gonna kill him. He smirked to himself and yawned, thinking he wouldn't be too bothered by it as long as his partner was willing to wait until he had a good, long nap first. 

 

Duo sniffed hard as his nose started to run and awkwardly tried to wipe it on his puffy jacket sleeve. Damn, but his head hurt. How had he not noticed he had a headache? Could a person actually be so cold that their brain went numb? 

 

He winced as the light from his laptop came on and made the pounding even worse. Squinting at the time in the bottom corner he moaned. 3 fucking 30. He'd need to hang around writing reports for at least another hour and a half before he could conceivably call it a day. He grumbled as he pulled up his email and began exhaustedly sifting through what he'd missed just in case there was anything important. He'd get to writing the reports about his trip to frozen hell in a minute. He sniffed again against his continuously running nose and scrubbed at it vigorously as it started to burn. However, said scrubbing only seemed to make matters worse and he was certain he must have gotten some of the fur from his jacket cuff stuck up his nose.  He closed his eyes and held his breath for a second until the urge to sneeze had passed. Probably meant now was a good time to actually address said runny nose issue before he really made a mess of himself. 

 

He swiveled around in the chair looking for a box of tissues and spent about two minutes vaguely scanning the room before realizing his error. They never kept tissues in here. They'd never really needed to. As Gundam pilots, if they sneezed once a year it was a lot. Their immune systems were jacked as hell so other than wiping down their sunglasses they didn't really have a use for them. He sniffed again gently and rolled over to the closet, thinking that perhaps someone in maintenance might've kept it stocked because for regular people tissues were probably a pretty standard affair. 

 

He crowed in triumph as he spotted a flimsy green box and decided he might as well just have at it. Stupid subzero temperatures freezing not only his brain but his sinuses as well. He spent a bit of time blowing his nose until he couldn't anymore and by the end he had to admit that he did feel considerably better.  He unzipped the neck of his coat, just the neck, he wasn't warm enough to do any more than that, and rolled back to the desk. He had just opened his first priority email when a call popped up on his screen. 

 

Quatre. Huh. He rubbed at the back of his neck and wracked his brain for why he might be receiving a call from his friend, but couldn't come up with anything viable. No better way to figure out than to ask, he supposed. He answered the call and Quatre's blonde hair lit up the screen. 

 

"Hey, Quat." He greeted, then cleared his throat as his voice had come out all gravelly.  He wasn't surprised, he hadn't actually spoken to anyone in over 72hrs. Probably just needed time for his voice to warm back up too. 

 

"Duo!" The blonde exclaimed with a smile. "I'm so glad I caught you! Are you just back?"

 

"Yep." He quipped, "and very glad to be. Fuck but Siberia really is the frozen wasteland everyone says it is." He smiled a bit, but the action quickly transformed into a jaw cracking yawn that he hastily covered. "So--" He tried to excuse himself but was forced to wait till the yawn was past before continuing. "Sorry, man. Whole op went well enough. I'm just beat. What's up?"

 

Quatre smiled knowingly at him and apologized. "I understand, I won't keep you long. I just wanted to let you know I can take the files you and Heero have compiled about the L4 summit whenever you get the chance to send them over. Une, wants my input on a few things. Heero had to ship out before I had a chance to send him the request."

 

Duo blinked. "Heero shipped out?" 

 

Quatre chuckled at his blank expression, "Yes, but only 3 days ago. I'm sure he left you a message about it somewhere."

 

Oh he better have. Duo was half growling under his breath as he madly scanned through his emails. He eventually gave up sifting through the office spam and just searched 'Yuy'. The top message was titled "OUT" and wasn't even marked priority. The bastard. He'd leave the salty puddle he'd made under his chair just for that. He clicked on it and saw only three lines of content. "Out on op. Should return in two weeks. Don't forget to feed Wing."

 

Duo rolled his eyes and glanced at the goldfish at the back of the desk on his left. Of course he'd feed the damn fish. It was half his anyway. He'd gotten it for Heero as a joke, a ridiculous office warming present when they'd first moved in. He'd had no idea the guy would actually take to the thing. Despite Heero naming it, so predictably too, and keeping it on his desk, they were often out on solo ops and therefore regularly traded looking after the thing. 

 

"Duo?"

 

Duo shook his head, realizing he'd just spaced out staring at a fish. "Sorry, Q. Just found Heero's message there now. Yeah, I can send you the files, no problem." He felt a sudden sting in his nose, and sniffed. Then knuckled the side of his nose when it refused to abate. "You ok to receive via PrevLink through email or you need a drive delivered?" 

 

"I have access to PrevLink. That'll be fine."

 

"Great." Duo said, trying his best to just ignore the burning sensation as it suddenly quadruped.  "Gimme about tehhh-" his breath hitched and he pinched hard at his nose, then let go quickly and cleared his throat before continuing on. "Ten minutes. That ok?"

 

"Perfect. Thanks, Duo. I really appreciate it."

 

Duo waved a hand in dismissal. "No problem. I'm just sorry you had to wait three dahhh--" he pinched his nose again, but it was useless, all he could do now was make an effort to finish the sentence before he gave in. "Three days for--" he twisted to the side and kept his nose pinched as a sneeze finally forced its way out. "hx'CHXHT!" He stayed turned away as he quickly ran a knuckle under his nose to make sure it wasn't running. He turned bed back to the screen, feeling a tad embarrassed at his loss of control.

 

He opened his mouth to apologise, but Quatre's exclamation cut him off before he could. "Bless you!" 

 

Duo suddenly found himself fighting down a blush. He didn't think anyone had blessed him since Father Maxwell. He knew people did it, he heard the exchange here in the office all the time. Just, he hadn't realized that it hadn't been applied to him in ages. He supposed he'd never sneezed in front of any of the other pilots before now.  He rubbed that back of his neck and smiled sheepishly in an effort to distract Quatre from his burning cheeks. "Ah, thanks." He cleared his throat as his voice cracked slightly. "Sorry about that. Feels like everything in me is still thawing out. Nose included." He smirked and sniffled loudly in illustration. 

 

Quatre smiled slightly and gave a commiserating nod, though there was a slight crease between his brows that didn't seem to match the rest of his expression. "I'll let you finish up so you can catch up on your rest then."

 

"Thanks, Q-man. Over and out." He said as he disconnected the call. 

 

Well, that had been…mildly awkward. He snorted at himself for making any deal out of it whatsoever. People sneezed. That's how bodies worked. He knew he had before when crawling through dusty ventilation units on missions and such. He was sure the other pilots did it too. ...Even if he'd never heard them before. Whatever, he had too few working brain cells left right now to waste their energy thinking about stupid things. He had shit to get done so he could go home and sleep. He stretched his neck from side to side, relishing the cracks and then scooted the chair forward. His boots squeaked in the moisture once more and he grinned to himself.  He slid his feet out to the sides and then back again and out and back again a few times, painting a sort of shooting star of salty streaks. 

 

...Not even a priority email. Pff! Well, it was a small fuck you, considering, but it made his frozen body feel that much better as he dug into his last hours worth of work in order to run out the clock. 

 

~~~~~

 

Duo woke up the next morning to the blaring of his alarm and groaned. Fuck. Already? He could have sworn he'd just closed his eyes. He swatted the annoying thing off and lurched into a seated position. He fought back a dry mouthed yawn and swallowed instead. He grimaced in unpleasant surprise when he felt as if razor blades were lining his throat. What the hell? He bit his tongue to get a little saliva into his mouth and tried again.  He was even more displeased to find the moisture hadn't made one bit of difference and he'd simply repeated the painful experience. Well, this was new. Why was his throat sore? He hadn't been exposed to any chemicals at the compound. He frowned as he wracked his brain for any possible insight into the source of his discomfort. As he sat there he felt his nose beginning to run again and sniffed. Or tried to anyway. Instead of a sniff all he got was a high pitched squeak. His brow furrowed even further. What the actual fuck was happening to him right now? The movement of the numbers shifting on his clock caught his attention and he shook his head at himself. Okay, so his body was behaving a little oddly today. He forced himself to swallow again and noticed it felt ever so slightly more bearable. Good, he thought with relief, he probably just needed a drink or something, that was all. Regardless, nothing he was feeling was bad enough to really concern him. Odd and uncomfortable, yes. Worth being late to work for? Not in the least. He hauled his still tired body the rest of the way out of bed and shivered a bit as the cold air hit the rest of his now exposed skin.  Yep, a hot shower sounded like just the thing to get him back on track. He rubbed the gooseflesh on his arms and made a hasty beeline for the bathroom. 

 

He brushed his teeth while he waited for the water to warm. When the mirror began to steam he stripped off his boxers and stepped into the combo shower/tub. 

 

"Oooohhhhh yes, yes, yes." He half whispered, half croaked. He cleared his throat aggressively to shake the gravel off and settled for humming in pleasure as the steaming water heated him from his head to his toes. He sniffed in again and was surprised to find that it was a little easier to do. Though he didn't particularly enjoy the glob of gunk that slunk down his throat afterwards. He leaned over and hawked it into the shower drain. Gross. He sniffed again and found things further improved. He took a mouthful of hot water and gargled that just to see how magical it really was this morning. He swallowed after he spat and found mild relief there, but not as great as with his nose. Ah well, had been worth the try. 

 

He went on with his shower and scrubbed himself clean. He squirted shampoo into his hands and began to later before the next oddity reared its ugly head. The smell of the shampoo, the same stuff he uses every day, somehow stung at his nose and the sensation ramped right up from a 4 to a 10 and he barely had time to bring his forearm up towards his face before the sneeze overtook him. 

 

"H'ISSSHu! TX'Chshh! Huh'tschhU!"

 

He blinked, completely thrown to find himself half bent over at the waist, one arm braced against the wall and the other mashed against his now very snotty face. What the hell had that been?! He'd never sneezed more than once at a time in his entire life! What was with today being stuffed full of unpleasant firsts? He turned his face into the water and let it wash all evidence of the moment away.  He wiped a hand down his face to make sure he was clean, and sniffed again. Overall he felt significantly better than he had when he got in, so he shrugged off the weirdness of the whole thing and counted it as a win. 

 

He shut off the water and wrapped himself in a towel before stepping out. He dried off as best as he could, wrapped his hair in a towel and stuck his head out to check the time. 5:17. He frowned at that. He was 7 minutes behind schedule somehow. He'd need to get a move on. He quickly padded into the bedroom and proceeded to get dressed. He spent another precious few minutes towel drying his hair and then braided it wet as he did most mornings. He ruffled and fluffed out his bangs to help then air-dry and then made his way to the kitchen. 

 

He snagged a protein bar, grabbed his bag from where he'd dumped it yesterday, threw the dirty clothes onto the floor--he'd get them later--refilled his water bottle, and headed out. 

 

Autumn in Brussels was brisk to put it mildly. He tucked his head down against the breeze and tugged his jacket closer. Thankfully he only lived two blocks from headquarters so he wouldn't have to deal with it for long. All the pilots lived pretty close by actually, in the regulation agent housing establishments. Well, all but Quatre. He consulted for Preventers but that was it. He was mostly focused on running his company on L4. He did do the bulk of that managing though from an office just across town, so all things considered they'd ended up a lot closer than he'd ever thought they'd be. And it had been nice, being able to keep in touch. There'd been talk recently of Preventers moving from solo operatives to partnerships, so there was even the chance they might get to team up again like in the old days. He enjoyed working alone, sure. No one to hold you accountable but yourself, what wasn't to like? But he'd missed some of the benefits of having someone to watch your back. He and Heero had really had something good together by the end of the war. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't mildly hopeful that they'd get another chance to work together in the same way again.

 

He pulled himself out of his musing as he reached the buildings front. Shit, his whole head felt frozen. He'd be surprised if there weren't icicles forming on his braid. He usually walked to work with wet hair and had never thought anything of it. But for some reason today it felt like another unnecessary discomfort added to his already growing list. 

 

He tugged open the door and eagerly stepped into the warm inside air. He walked through the lobby and pulled out his badge as he approached the security desk. "Mornin', Peeters." He called. 

 

"Good morning, Mr. Maxwell." The guard greeted back, in his thick Dutch accent.  "I hear Mr. Yuy got the coveted Nice assignment."

 

Duo stopped at the desk, and stared wide eyes at the man. "That fucker's in Nice?! He's out scouting on beautiful beaches in France while I was freezing my ass off in the tundra?"

 

The guard chuckled. "He did not tell you?" 

 

Duo shook his head in disbelief.

 

"Well my guess is maybe he did not want rub it in." 

 

Duo snorted at that and then had to backtrack the unexpectedly snotty action with a hard sniffle that made his nose burn again. "Nice is wasted on that guy. He wouldn't know a good vacation spot if it bit him on the ass." He brought a hand up and knuckled the side of his nose in a vain attempt to quell the rising burn.

 

"Probably why he got it though, yes? He is always all business. Any other Agent would have been logging time in the sun instead of on the clock."

 

"Yeah, yeah," Duo said, smiling through a clenched jaw clenched, fighting the sneeze tooth and nail. "You're probably righhh--" Fuck! He spun to the side and pinched his nose hard as he held back as much of it as he could. "H'ngxt! Ngxt!"

 

"Verbazing." 

 

Duo groaned inwardly. Why was he now regularly a part of this aspect of culture he'd managed to avoid for 22 years? Whatever. At least he knew how not to appear like an ass. 

 

He sniffed again and turned back to the Peeters. "Dank je", he replied with a nod, pleased at least to exercise some of the Dutch he'd been picking up since starting on the force. 

 

The man beamed back at him. "I'll make a native of you yet, young man!"

 

Duo laughed genuinely and smiled back as he said "Good luck with that!" He waved at the man and headed towards the elevators.

 

"Fijne dag!" Peeters called.

 

"N’importe quoi, vieillard." He shouted back as the elevator doors slid closed, wincing at the unexpected sting in his throat. 

 

Duo got off on the 15th floor and headed to his office. He flipped on the lights and smirked at the mess of salt stains under Yuy's chair. Nice… He shook his head ruefully. The lucky bastard. 

 

He sat down at his own desk this time and booted up his laptop once again. He'd stretched Quatre's ten minutes of transfer requests out for the whole last hour yesterday, so today he was going to have to buckle down and do the reports. He'd barely typed up the header when a vid call came through. 

 

Quatre. Again.

 

How the hell--he'd literally just sat down! 

 

He answered the call with a look of fond exasperation on his face.

 

"You have this office bugged, don't you?" He narrowed his eyes. "There's a sensor in this chair somewhere so you know the second I sit down."

 

Quatre held his hands up and smiled innocently. "Your office hours do start at 6 you know. It's more amazing to me that you actually come in on time."

 

Duo barked a laugh and winced, unconsciously rubbing at his throat. "Stereotyping, Quat? Just because I'm messy doesn't mean I'm lazy." He wagged a finger at the screen. "I beat Yuy in here most days, I'll have you know. And let me tell you that's a feat because the man has a flawless internal clock, unlike us mere mortals who need to use watches and such."

 

Quatre chuckled and shook his head. "Understood. I just wanted to thank you for the files. You can let Une know I'll send her my thoughts by the end of the week."

 

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure, I guess." He stumbled, thrown by the request. Couldn't Quatre have just sent that message himself?  His eyeballs gave a sudden angry throb and he rapidly decided that it'd take him three seconds to do it and he really didn't give a shit anyway. 

 

"No problem." He finished, giving his friend a half smile half grimace. 

 

"Great!" Quatre chimed. "Thanks, Duo. Good luck with your day! Should at least be a warmer one." He smirked.

 

Duo started to shake his head at the blonde but stopped when he realized that movement seemed to make the pain worse.

 

"Later, Q-bean." He said tightly and quickly ended the call. 

 

"Oooh, fuuuck meeeeeee." He moaned as he gently lowered his head into his hands and hoped for mercy. Eyeball pain? What the hell was this? Body part rebellion day?  He had reports to do, for Pete's sake.  He sat up and squinted at the bright screen. Yeah, nope. That needed to change. He dialed down the brightness and rolled over to the office lights and shut them off as well. It provided only mild relief, but he'd take what he could get. He rolled back over to his laptop and pulled out his protein bar. His stomach was also feeling a little queasy, probably mad at him for sleeping instead of eating dinner last night. He took a bite and quickly fired off the email to Une for Quatre. He went to swallow and nearly moaned in pain at the feeling of the dry, grainy biscuit scraping its way down his raw throat. Fuck this day was just determined to annoy him at every turn wasn't it. He followed the bite of what had felt like cut glass with a swig from his water bottle and decided he didn't love the feel of that either. He looked down at the rest of the bar sitting half unwrapped on his desk for about three seconds before deciding it wasn't worth it. He'd just settle his stomach at lunch. 

 

~~~~~~

 

Thankfully Duo was able to lose himself deep enough in his work that he didn't resurface until someone knocked on his door about two hours later. 

 

He blinked out of his trance and was reminded that he was sitting in near total darkness. "Uhm" he croaked. "Just a sec." He coughed lightly to clear the junk out of his throat and rolled his chair over towards the light switch. He flipped it on only to immediately wished he hadn't. His eyes stabbed and his nose seemed to not want to be left out as it instantly burned and threw him into another fit. "H'TISHH! 'TshHU! Hih!--Hih'TSCHu!" He'd buried his nose into the crook of his arm at the last second, but now he was a disgusting mess. He reluctantly pulled out the box of tissues from the closet again and set them on his desk. He quickly plucked out a few and did his best to clean himself up without actually blowing his nose. The doors were pretty thin and he didn't feel like whoever was out there getting an ear full of what that was likely to sound like. He sniffled wetly, tossed the tissues in his bin and rolled over to open the door.

 

"Trowa!" He remarked in surprise, sniffling self-consciously. "What brings you to this neck of the woods?" The tall acrobat usually worked over in development for special projects. If you'd have told Duo a year ago that one of their ilk would choose to work a desk job he'd never have believed you. But here was the proof standing right in front of him in a starched button down shirt and pleated trousers.

 

Trowa stepped forward slightly to lean against the door frame, gave Duo a sideways glance from under his bangs, and then casually extended a cup of coffee towards him. Duo just blinked at it. He could count the number of times Trowa had been to his and Heero's office in the past year on one hand, and none of them had ever been social calls. Particularly because Trowa in general was the opposite of social, but also because outside of a group dinner every few months or so, none of the other pilots ever really took time to see each other. They were comrades, sure, but he wouldn't really go so far as to say any of them were close friends. Not friends that would bring their each other coffee anyway. 

 

Duo's brow furrowed and he looked up at Trowa, wincing slightly at the eyeball ache the move spurred. "Uhh…" he croaked unintelligently, more certain not than ever before that he was in the twilight zone. 

 

Trowa smirked slightly and shrugged. "Iverson called to tell me he was sick after I'd already bought his coffee. Yuy says you like some coffee with your sugar and I don't know anyone else who'd drink this. Ill have to toss it otherwise."

 

Duo's mouth began to water at the prospect of warm, sugary goodness that wouldn't hurt his throat and might actually put some fuel in his stomach. Never one to let food go to waste either, he tried not to look too eager as he reached for the cup. He squinted at writing on the side. "Double chocolate mocha with extra peppermint syrup and heavy whip." Duo snorted which instantly turned into a cough. He really needed to stop doing that today. It was just--that order and the image of Trowa having to ask for it… He fought back a smile at the thought and quickly sipped the liquid to soothe the irritation. "Pretty sure you're officemates with Santa Claus, but thanks. Hits the spot today actually." Duo set the cup down on the desk and reached into his pocket.

 

"How much do I owe ya?"

 

Trowa just waved his hand dismissively. "You did me a favor. It probably would have clogged the sink."  

 

At that Duo barked out a full laugh and once more paid for it as his throat and lungs seemed to rebel. He guzzled more of the coffee and once he caught his breath and wiped at his watering eyes, he looked back up to see Trowa studying him intently. Duo felt his face heating up again and squirmed under the scrutiny.  "Ah, well don't let me hold you up, man. Appreciate the diabetic coma!" He lifted the cup in a toast and smiled brightly.

 

Trowa looked at him a moment longer before giving a small nod and walking away.

 

Duo hurriedly closed his office door and then he did slump down in his chair. What was going on with him? His bodily functions had never been so out of his control before. He took another sip of the drink, turned off the lights once more, and rolled wearily back to his desk. If anyone else came knocking he'd just pretend not to be in. He needed to save his energy for the afternoon anyway as he didn't seem to have a lot to spare. 

 

He cracked his knuckles and then his neck and bent back over the laptop. At least he was less queasy thanks to the coffee. One thing at a time.

 

TBC...

[funbusej]

I like where this is going!!

[LostGirl2.0]

Thanks, @funbusej!!  Here's some more so hope you enjoy!

 

Part 2

 

Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

 

Duo shot up and fumbled for his phone. He blinked blearily at the reminder that he was to begin working with the new recruits in 15 minutes. He rubbed at his eyes and realized with no small amount of horror that he'd fallen asleep on the keyboard. He'd never fallen asleep without meaning to in the absence of a head injury. Come to think of it, his headache was feeling worse...maybe? He ran his hands quickly over his head but felt no tender lumps. He frowned. That was the only explanation he could think of. He must have hit his head during the mission and just didn't recall it. It wouldn't be the first time. All the pilots had pretty hard heads. Heero's might even be made of steel.

 

He yawned and reached for a handful of tissues to once again blow his nose as it seemed to have been running in his sleep. Gross. He stood up to stretch and was surprised by how sore he felt. He had sustained many injuries while he was away, only a bruise here and there, but he wouldn't have thought he'd still be feeling it now. He ran his hands over his face and picked up his gear.  Some exercise with the newbies would do him good. Get the blood flowing a bit. He stretched his aching body one more time and pulled open the door. The second the light in the hallway hit his eyes the sneeze hit hard and with no warning at all. 

 

"H'ISHsshhu!"

 

He quickly brought a hand to his face and looked around. The hallway was empty, thankfully. Most people were probably still finishing up lunch. He thanked God for small mercies before ducking back into his office to stuff his pockets with tissues just in case. He wiped his nose one last time and looked out into the hall again just to be sure he wasn't going to find himself with a repeat performance. Nope. All good. He sniffled and coughed once into his fist before booking it down to the training area via the stairwell. He was feeling too groggy and a race down the stairs would help wake him up. He'd never been late before and he certainly wasn't going to start now. 

 

Duo made it to the training floor with only a few ticklish coughs sneaking out along the way and was convinced he was already feeling better. He sauntered into the gymnasium with most of the usual pep in his step to see everyone already warming up. It was the latest he'd been yet, but the fact that they'd begun without him showed good initiative. 

 

"Alright, 5 more minutes people!" He hollered, flat out refusing to notice to the rasp in his voice.  "Start to wrap it up! We're running course Gamma today!" 

 

There were a few grumbles as he headed over to the large control panel on the wall near the main doors and keyed in the code to summon the course. Suddenly the air was filled with metallic screeches and clangs as the requested obstacles emerged out of the walls and floors. Gamma was an easier course, and one they'd already run before. However, he was going to put a bit of a spin on things today and didn't want anyone getting hurt trying to achieve two objectives at once.

 

"Okay, huddle up, agents!"  

 

Twelve greenhorns quickly jogged over to him from the mats and took a knee. Duo was proud of this group so far. He'd only been working with them for two months, but he could see a lot of potential. Time to up the anti.

 

"Today" he said, with a smirk, "we're going to mix things up a bit." A few of them moaned, but more than half looked excited by the prospect. Probably the half that thought the gamma course was so "last month".  "You're used to running these courses weekly with the focus on your personal best. Today," he paused a little for dramatic effect "it's not just your own ass on the line, but your partner's as well." 

 

Eyes went wide and heads began to turn as each began assessing the other for their likelihood of success if paired. They didn't know this, but Duo was running the first paired exercise in the whole organization. If the rumors were true and agents were going to be working with partners or even teams, he wanted his group of trainees ready to make the adjustment. 

 

"Pair yourselves up as you like and we'll see what you can do."  Chaos ensued for a few minutes as everyone fought for the partner they desired. Once things had settled, Duo set them all to run the course, pair by pair. They did fairly well the first time around and Duo gathered them back to him for what they presumed would be feedback. 

 

"Not bad, not bad. But let's see if we can do better, shall we? Martin you're with Patil, Johannes you're with Yung, Wurzelbacher with Pitt, Abadi with Nguyen, Schott with van Leer, and Gaines with Perez." 

 

There were frowns from some of them as the left friends to partner foes, but Duo knew this was a competitive bunch and he'd paid careful attention to their strengths. He was certain they were all about to be surprised. "Remember, your best time is your partner's best time. If you don't finish together you don't finish at all, so their skin is just as precious as yours. Protect it." 

 

He sent them off to run it again and on the whole, times significantly improved. He smiled knowingly as they all appeared to begrudgingly come to the realization that just having someone you like as your partner might not actually bring out the best in you. 

 

"Alright, that's good! Circle back!"

 

They once more took a knee in front of him, now wiping at their faces with sweaty shirts and arms. "Any thoughts on the reason for the improvement? Gaines?"

 

"You paired us based on our strengths and weaknesses, sir. Saw to it that we compliment each other."

 

Duo tapped his forehead and pointed back to her. "Got it in one! A good partnership needs respect and a thorough understanding of each person's strengths and limitations. The ideal partnership is about balance. You don't have to be besties to be effective." 

 

He got a few smiles for that. "Alright agents, thats it for today then." He said trying to covertly rub at his nose which had suddenly begun to sting. He needed to wrap this up quickly. "Unless there's any questions--"

 

"Agent Night?"

 

Duo tried not to look put out as he was forced to press a fist up under his nose, disguising the gesture as a throat clear.

 

"Yes, Agent Nguyen?"

 

"If you don't mind my asking sir, who would your ideal course partner be?"

 

It was a rather personal and ballsy question to ask, but Duo didn't mind. He had nothing to hide. Unfortunately, as soon as he took a breath to answer he lost control and sound away from them to clamp down on his nose instead.

 

"Ng'CHXT!"

 

A chorus of blessings in various languages were lobbed at his back as he waited a moment to make certain there weren't any more. He sniffled carefully to check he was presentable and turned back as casually as he could to address the question.

 

"Sorry 'bout that. I do have a good guess at who I'd run this best with, but unfortunately he's on assignment in Nice right now so you're just gonna have to wait for that show later on." 

 

There were a few disappointed moans but no one had any further questions so he ended things there.

 

"Class dismissed!" He said with a grin and headed towards the entrance to reset the course. As the recruits shuffled through he overhead an interesting bit of conversation between agents Perez and Nguyen. 

 

"Ladies, hold up a sec." He asked, and they dutifully returned to the gym. "Did I just hear you say Yuy's recruits have the week off training?"

 

"Yes, sir." Agent Perez answered, politely. "They were unable to find a sub so they have been told to fill the time with literary studies."

 

"It's so not fair!" Agent Nguyen hissed under her breath. 

 

He raised an eyebrow at her comment and she blushed and stood at attention. "Not that it's my place to comment on the administration, sir."

 

He blew out a breath of frustration and waved off the agent's nervousness. "Relax Cammy, you're ok. I actually agree with you, just not for the same reasons. It's not fair that they'll fall behind the rest of you because we're short staffed." He chewed his lip for a moment and sniffled before coming to a decision. "You're headed back to the barracks?"

 

They nodded. 

 

"Could you stop by Agent Blaze's classroom and let her know I'd like Yuy's recruits sent here for their usual field training slot?"

 

"Yes, sir." They answered in tandem and he gave them a nod of thanks as they left to do as he'd requested. 

 

Duo hit the code again to reset the course and sighed. Damn but he was tired. And sore. Lord knows what insanity Yuy trained his team in, so he'd have to be on his A game or he'd never hear the end of it when the man returned. He swallowed with a wince and checked his phone. He still had ten minutes before their class let out and they'd be on their way. He tugged off his shirt and shivered as he headed over towards the course. He'd have to check the thermostat after he was done. Someone must have messed with it, because it was much colder today than it usually was and he'd felt enough arctic winds lately to last him for a lifetime. He did a few laps just to warm himself up and then set up to run the course. He ought to be able to get in three reps in ten minutes if he was in good form. And as far as he was concerned, that was the only form to be in.

 

----------

 

 

Duo grabbed a peanut butter protein sandwich from the vending machine as he made his way through the parking garage to his car. There was no way he was cooking dinner tonight. He was absolutely dead on his feet. He'd given Yuy's recruits the same lesson as his own, though he'd had them run a few laps while he finished catching up on Yuy's assessments so that he had a shot at pairing them up well. It hadn't turned out too badly all things considered. And although he wasn't half as intimidating as their usual leader, he felt he'd done enough to at least garner a little of their respect. 

 

He slid into the sanctuary of his car and sniffed hard against the tickle and congestion that had set up home there.

 

"Heh!" He scrambled for the was of tissues in his pocket and got them to his face just in time. "H'CHshhh! H'ISHuh! Hih-hih! HX'TCHU!" He blew his nose hard and let his head fall back against the headrest. His eyes felt hot and gritty and his head felt like a heard of elephants had started doing the conga. He sniffed in again and wretched forward immediately with another harsh sneeze. 

 

"H'ISSHHHHAH!"

 

He'd half caught it in the tissues and half sprayed the steering wheel. Awesome. Ugh... What in the world was wrong with him? He'd never felt like this before. He'd sneezed more today than he had in the rest of his life!

 

He tossed the sodden mess of tissues into an empty takeout bag on the floor and proceeded to dig around in the glove compartment for a napkin. He eventually found a partially shredded one and did his best to make do with it wincing at its roughness and finally understanding why there were so many different brands of "aloed" and "lotioned" tissues in existence. 

 

He tossed the now soggy mess of paper away as well and began to head home. He just needed more sleep. That was all. Had to be. He just hadn't had enough time to thaw out quite yet. He repeated this mantra to himself for the next twenty minutes until he collapsed into bed and could think it no more. 

 

----------

 

If Duo had thought that sleep would make him feel better, he was sorely mistaken.  When he finally became aware of his alarm it was to find out it had been going off for roughly 10 minutes. He heaved himself up out of bed shivering and stumbled into the bathroom. The shower once again felt wonderful and helped open his nose up so he could at least breathe through it. Well, breathe and sneeze apparently, because now one seemed to lead directly to the other.

 

Fuck him, what a mess. He hurriedly braided his wet hair, got dressed, grabbed his bag and ran out the door. Every footfall felt jarring to his bones and he was so nauseated that he had to pause more than once because he thought for sure he was gonna be sick. He made it to the building sweating and shivering and made a beeline for the elevator, giving Peters only the vaguest of waves. He needed the sanctuary of his office to pull himself together and he needed it now. 

 

The elevator dinged quickly but just as he stepped inside there was a shout of "hold the door!". Duo moaned to himself but obligingly stuck out his arm and waited until the other person made it on. 

 

"Oh, thank you!" A young strawberry blonde woman gushed in a soft Irish accent. "I'm so late already, and I really didn't fancy taking the stairs in these heels." She smiled at him sweetly and Duo did his best to dredge up enough energy to smile back. 

 

"What floor?" He asked, but it came out so hoarse and broken he had to clear his throat and try again.

 

"14 please."

 

Duo hit her button and then his before offering her a half smile and saying, "Yeah that would have been a bitch in heels."  He'd barely gotten the last word out before he was forced to twist away and clamp down hard on his nose. "H'ngxt! H'txschu! CHXT!"

 

"Bless you." She said kindly. 

 

"Excuse me," Duo mumbled, feeling horribly awkward and embarrassed as he began frantically searching his pockets while keeping one hand over the lower half of his rapidly reddening face.

 

"Oh! Here!" She said, and dug a soft pink handkerchief out of her purse and held it out to him.

 

He took it gratefully and cleaned himself up as discreetly as possible. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of sniffing in when he was done and found himself immediately burying his face back into it.

 

"Ih'tchISHHu! TXCH'u!"

 

"Bless you!" She exclaimed. "You sound like you've taken a wee dose." She frowned up at him in concern.

 

He cleared his throat and shook his head as he quirked a smile. "Nah, ma'am. Never been sick a day in my life. Just back from an op at the end of the earth and still haven't thawed out completely. Least parts of me seem to still be running anyway." He sniffled in illustration and then aggravatedly had to press a fist under his nose to stave off yet another sneeze. 

 

She chuckled lightly at his attempt at humor and stepped forward as the elevator was about to ding.

 

"Wait! What department are you in? I'll clean this and get it back to you."

 

"Not to worry." She waved him off. "My mum gives me ten of them every Christmas. I'll not even know it's gone."

 

"Well thank you then--" he paused expectantly. 

 

She stepped off and turned around with a smile. "Deirdre."

 

"Deirdre" he echoed back and gave her another smile and jaunty wave as the doors finally closed. 

 

As soon as they did he slumped heavily against the back wall and closed his eyes. She seemed like a great girl and any other day he might have thought about asking her to dinner, but presently he could barely muster the energy to stay upright, let alone woo anyone. 

 

The elevator stopped at his floor and he lurched off it and shot down the hall in a way he hoped looked urgent enough no one would bother him. Thankfully it worked. He shut the door behind him, dropped his bag on the floor and collapsed into his chair. He immediately began rifling through his desk drawer for the bottle of caffeine pills he kept there and promptly downed 6. They weren't terribly effective for him, but he found they gave him a slight boost here and there when his energy was running low. He really hoped they'd do that and a little bit more for him today. 

 

He popped open his email but before he got halfway through what he'd received overnight his cell phone rang. The caller ID came up "Boo Boo" and he snorted as he answered. "Hey Massimo, long time no talk!"

 

"Ahi! Duo, you sound like shit. What happened, uomo?"

 

Duo frowned, he hadn't thought his voice was that bad.

 

"Ah, you know.... Been working with the new recruits a lot lately." He said, not really saying much of anything, but happy to let the other man think what he would since he honestly had no idea 'what the hell had happened' himself. 

 

"Ahhh… I see. Frustandoli in forma, eh?"

 

"Si. Now what can I do ya for, Big Man?"

 

"Ah, Duo... It's compleanno di mia nipote and mia moglie had surgery last week and says she cannot get ready per la fiesta without me."

 

"You need me to cover you for a few?" Duo was wincing internally. This wasn't anything new, he took shifts for the guys in the motor poole all the time. In exchange they let him soup up his field vehicles, off record. However, most days he wasn't dealing with whatever he was dealing with today, so that just made everything slightly less fun than it usually was. 

 

"Sure, nonno. What time you need?"

 

"Just a few hours before lunch, say dieci a dodici?"

 

"Can do. Give Sofia my best wishes for a speedy recovery!"

 

"Si! Gratzi, Duo!"

 

Duo had to quickly stifle a sneeze into silence before signing off. "Ciao!"

 

"Ciao!"

 

He dropped the phone not his desk and grabbed his head with both hands. Holy fuck that had been a bad idea. His eyeballs felt like they might actually pop out of his head, that is, if the whole thing didn't just explode in its entirety first. Well that was a lesson learned. 

 

He squinted at his computer, but it only made the pain worse, so he slammed the thing shut and decided he'd just work on hard copy case files for the next few hours until it was time to head to the garage. He pulled several folders from the filer atop his desk and bent over them. Five minutes in he found himself shivering and rose to put his jacket back on. They must have made a building-wide decision to cut back on heating this winter, he surmised. Budget cuts. What are ya gonna do? 

 

He sat back down and got stuck in. At half past 9 his phone rang again. This time it was Quatre. Duo felt a bit guilty, but he let it go to voicemail. Massimo was 83 and half deaf. If he could tell something was off with Duo's voice, Quatre would be all over it in a heartbeat and Duo didn't feel like trying to explain it away to anyone else if he didn't have to.  He just needed a little more time and he'd be back to normal. Nothing worth bothering anyone over. 

 

Quatre didn't leave a voicemail and though Duo was curious, he shrugged it off. If it was an emergency he'd call back. For now, he'd take it as another bullet dodged. 

 

At quarter to ten he packed up the case files, on which he'd made embarrassingly little progress, and dropped to the floor to do 50 push ups. The caffeine hadn't really kicked in like he'd hoped and his body was aching like he'd just been on the losing end of a battle in Deathscythe. Last night's sleep hadn't done him a damn bit of good, so it was back to trusty old adrenaline and endorphins. After the push-ups he did 50 burpees and then headed out the door feeling roughly the same amount of miserable as he had before, though he told himself things were better. 

 

He was almost to the elevator when Trowa stepped out and Duo silently cursed. He quickly whipped out his phone. He put it to his ear, picked up his pace, and began nodding with his head down low as he raced the rest of the way down the hall. He gave Trowa a wave but didn't raise his head until after the elevator doors had closed. Trowa in his division twice in two days? Duo smelled Quatre all over that one. Well, whatever he wanted couldn't have been too important or Trowa wouldn't have let him pass. He brushed the whole affair off again as Quatre being, well, Quatre, and stepped out into the basement.

 

He walked through the lot a bit and made his way to the first familiar face he found. 

 

"Hey Paulie, what was Massimo working on today?"

 

"Duo! Great to see ya, man! Been a bit since you last skimmed it with us grease monkeys. The man keeping you busy upstairs?"

 

"P, you dunno the half of it. Just back from eight weeks in fucking Siberia. Can you guys hide me here and just say I went missing? At least the temp down here is reasonable."

 

Paulie laughed. "Fuckin sauna down here, mate. Just close your eyes and you're practically at the beach!"

 

"Get me a motor oil tan." He grinned. 

 

"Exactly!" Paulie clapped him on the back. "Now who was it you were--"

 

"Ng'ktchhh!"

 

"--askin after?"

 

"Sorry," Duo swiped a knuckle under his nose. "Mahhhh-- Massimo. H'gISHu!" At the last second he manged to twist away and bury his face into his jacket sleeve. "Tchxt! H'ng'tchh! Ugh, sorry." 

 

Paulie waved his apology off. "Massimo was workin' on repairing agent Wind's latest catastrophe."

 

Duo grimaced. Great. Zech's ride. He was all set to dread the next two hours until he saw what Paulie was pointing to and whistled.

 

"Oh hel-lo.  Where have you been all my life?" He practically cooed waltzing over to the red beauty to the sound of Paulie's laughter. 

 

"Enjoy, Maxwell!"

 

"Oh you bet I will"

 

Duo spent the next two hours under the red beauty enjoying the view, but struggling to stay awake. 

 

When his phone finally buzzed he startled and cursed, realizing that hand actually dropped off. He scrubbed a frustrated hand over his face. What the hell was going on with him? 

 

"H'zzchxt!"

 

Ugh. And of course that was still going on as well. 

 

He rolled out from under the car and forced his aching body into a stretch. He was going to owe Massimo an apology. He was little more than a glorified placeholder today. When he looked around he noticed the garage was practically empty and remembered it was lunchtime. He was still feeling nauseated so he took the elevator back up to his office instead of heading to the cafeteria with the rest. 

 

He opened his office door and froze. A cup of coffee was sitting on his desk. Duo was absolutely horrified at himself. He'd left the door unlocked? He shook his head and slammed it behind him. Heero would have his hide if he was here. Hell, he should have his own hide! He scanned to room for any disturbances or missing items, but saw nothing untoward outside of the unassuming drink. He walked over to his desk to find a piece of paper tucked underneath. It was a sketched picture of a cartoon rabbit with extra big eyes and long arms that were extended to underneath the cup as if it was being presented.

 

"What the...?" Duo picked up the coffee and sniffed it. It was the same "Santa" drink Trowa had brought him the day before, if he wasn't mistaken. He looked again at the strange drawing and saw I tiny 'T" in the bottom corner. Trowa drew this? Trowa? He honestly couldn't imagine it but the drawing was actually quite good. That guy and hidden talents. He chuckled at the thought, but it quickly turned into a coughing fit.

 

Duo tried to sip the coffee to help but he only coughed it back out again. It took several minutes, but he eventually caught his breath again on his own, though his chest was incredibly sore and there had been an unpleasant rattling sensation in it as he'd been coughing. Even now as he took a deep breath he could feel it in there. 

 

Duo picked up the coffee again and took a slow sip. Ok, so all of this was new, but he was still standing and breathing so he was fine. He was fine. He must have just gotten out of shape when he was holed up on this last op. Yeah, that must have been what it was. He just needed to keep training, that'd shake whatever this was off.

 

He sat down at his laptop and pulled up his schedule. He had two hours to catch up on casework and emails before he'd be working with his and Yuy's recruits for the rest of the day.  He drank half the coffee in one go, prayed it'd settle his stomach at least a little and dug in. He had a lot to do in a short amount of time, but with a little help, he could do it. He booted up an old playlist from Deathscythe turned the volume up loud. Yeah, he grinned, this oughta do it. 

 

TBC...