fic - two am : 4
Two AM : 4
He studied the upstairs windows overlooking the factory floor until he had a fair guess of the likely layout of the offices above. When he took one last glance before stepping out from the shadow of the old molding machine, he froze, fairly certain he'd caught sight of movement.
He eased back into a ready position and focused in on the shadows upstairs. Yes, someone was up there. Someone, like him, that did not belong there. There was someone else nosing around here tonight.
There were potential hostiles on site tonight, but nobody should have had any business in this building tonight. Honestly, none of them belonged at this allegedly shuttered factory either, but while no one here was exactly broadcasting their presence, Duo knew sneaky when he saw it.
Nothing to do but wait it out. Whether friend or foe, Duo wasn't going to go walking in on some unknown doing their business. With one eye on the windows, he crept to a position where he could both continue to keep watch but also get the jump on anyone coming down the stairs if necessary. And then he settled in.
He didn't have to wait too long. It was dark, but not so dark that he couldn't pick out the guy's build and gear and... quality of movement and... "Heero?" He wondered if any of his incredulity was evident in his whisper.
The man in question spun, weapon drawn in a flash and pointed in an unnervingly accurate direction and yeah that guy was Heero Yuy, because that reaction was yeah. Duo edged slightly more behind cover juuuust in case and wiggled the fingers of one hand out where he thought they'd be seen.
"Duo?" There was hardly a question mark at the end of the soft response.
He was pleased and faintly relieved and judged it safe to step out, though he kept his hands out and away from his body until Heero put his gun down. He sidled silently and cautiously to Heero's side and tried to respect personal space while getting close enough to speak as softly as possible. "Gun runners?"
Heero nodded.
"Mind sharing? Or do I gotta go up there myself?"
Heero pondered it for just a moment before nodding again, and signaling that they ought to extract.
They did, and there was no more caution, not of each other. It went as smoothly as if they had planned the whole operation together from the start. Heero followed Duo's lead to Duo's point of entry, and once they'd gotten around the next building and out of line of sight of the factory, they finally took a moment to sort things out.
"So," Duo started, somewhat less certain of his next move than he'd been all night. He stuck with business, first. "What brings you here?"
Heero shifted his weight. "Le Havre."
"Independent investigation?"
He nodded. "Preventers?"
Duo shrugged slightly. "Favor for. What were you planning to do with your intel?"
Heero inhaled, exhaled. "Depends on what I found. The bombing caught my attention. Followed the clues." He gestured in the direction of the facility they had just left. "Haven't gone over the data yet but... probably I wasn't planning to mess with a cartel on my own."
Duo nodded companionably. Just another day in the life of. "There are people who've missed you."
Heero took that without a twitch, but then he lowered his eyes, dropped his head slightly in apology. "Sorry... I needed to get away for a bit."
A bit, nearly a year... Yuy never did do half-measures. "You good?"
There was a pause, but not a suspiciously long one. "Yeah. Then this came up." He gestured at the factory again. "Since I was free..."
Duo huffed, amused in probably a couple of different ways but not bothering to sort them through. "So. About that intel?"
"You staying in the area?"
"Yeah. Two more nights."
"Go get some sleep. I'll be in touch."
Duo couldn't help himself. "Promise?"
Heero smiled faintly at him. "Promise." He turned to go.
"Hey, need a lift?"
"I've got transport, couple blocks that way."
Duo huffed, amused and pleased again. Dumb luck that they hadn't run into each other earlier, maybe. No, actually, it just figured that they'd identified the same best entry point.
Heero flicked his fingers over his shoulder in temporary farewell. "See you tomorrow."
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