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Disclaimer: Not mine. This obviously applies to the entire fic, so I'm not going to say it again.
A/N: This is a fic request for Ed of Oblivion. Yay! So enjoy.
It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. -Rollo May
Chapter One
It was 9:35 AM and already Trowa wanted the day to end. The coffee machine in in the Preventer’s office was broken, his chair was still squeaky, and he had a mountain of paperwork in front of him.
The phone on his desk rang, and Trowa answered with a tired, “Yes?”
“Agent Barton? This is Cowell. Lady Une came up with a new system for reports, so we’ll need you to re-write your assignments from the last-“ there was a rustling sound, “-oh, here it is, from the last three weeks. As soon as possible. The form has already been e-mailed to you.”
Trowa dropped the phone back into its cradle and let his head bang down against his desk.
It was going to be a long day.
And then suddenly he was spinning.
Trowa calmly waited for his chair to slow down before setting his feet on the floor and looking up at the perpetrator.
“Duo?” Surprise echoed in his voice, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Heya, Tro.” The braided ex-pilot grinned at him. He hasn’t changed at all, thought Trowa as he quietly studied his friend. A year had already passed since they had last seen each other, although they kept in touch through e-mails, postcards, the usual. Duo hadn’t mentioned anything about a visit, though.
“I’m just here to have a chat with Une,” Duo said with a wink, noting Trowa’s silence. “I’ve been thinking about joining up with the Preventer’s.”
At this, Trowa raised both his eyebrows, which was as close to a reaction as anyone ever got from him. “Interesting,” he replied, slowly processing the information in his head. “Would you like to get some coffee afterwards?”
“Sure thing!” Duo said, and spun his chair again, walking away as Trowa dizzily returned to his paperwork.
After a few minutes though, he gave it up as a lost cause. Any speck of interest that Trowa had had for his job had disappeared when Duo walked through the door. Instead, he opened a drawer and pulled out a pad of paper.
Across the top, Trowa had written “Reasons Why I Hate My Job” in his slanted scrawl. He studied it for a moment, then added reason number thirteen:
13. Nobody at work would ever dare to come up and spin me in my chair. As if I’m going to hit them or something. Just because Wufei punched that one agent for spilling coffee on his desk doesn’t mean ALL the Gundam pilots have anger management problems.
Trowa had started this list three months ago, when he had first decided that his job at the Preventer’s was slowly driving him insane. There were times when he wanted to quit, but he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. This is all I have, he thought silently to himself. Maybe this is all there is for me.
He felt a hand clap his shoulder. “‘Kay, I’m ready to go get that coffee!” Duo was carrying a large envelope, presumably filled with information about the Preventer’s.
“Let’s go then,” said Trowa, grabbing his jacket.
They stepped out into a bright spring day and turned left towards the café Trowa had been thinking about earlier. As they walked, Trowa carefully eyed the man beside him. Duo had grown taller since he had last seen him. His shoulders were broader, giving him a much more solid build, and his face had lost the last of its childish roundness. Trowa felt... well, rather stagnant next to him. He hadn’t grown for two years now, although he was still the tallest of his friends. His hair was still styled the same, he lived in the same place he had bought when the Preventer’s first invited him to join up, and he was still “the quiet one” of the group.
But Duo... Duo seemed to always be changing. Every time Trowa heard from him, he was doing something new. He switched jobs often and changed addresses even more frequently. He had no problem with being a mechanic one day and an assistant in a hardware store the next. His lifestyle completely fascinated Trowa; perhaps that was why he looked forward to Duo’s letters more than anyone else’s.
“There’s a sullenness to your silence today,” Duo commented aloud. How he could tell that, Trowa didn’t know, but he couldn’t deny that he was dead on.
When it became obvious that Trowa wasn’t going to reply, Duo nudged him in the ribs and said, “Come on, Mr. Sunshine, what’s going on in that head of yours?”
Trowa relented and replied, “Just thinking that I need a change. Everything in my life has been the same for a while. Same job, same apartment...” Trowa didn’t bother to list the other things that had been running through his mind.
“Same green eyes...” Duo murmured, smiling impishly at Trowa’s surprised look. “Oh, is this the place?”
They slowed to a stop in front of a compact building called Amie’s Coffee House. “After you,” Duo gestured, reaching for the glass door.
Inside, they quickly ordered plain coffees and sat down at a corner table, each adding their preferred amount of sugar and cream. Trowa took his first sip and smiled slightly with contentment. Yes, he had definitely been having caffeine withdrawals. One of these days, I will get around to buying my own coffee maker, he promised himself.
“So,” said Duo, leaning across the table conspiratorially, “how’s life, and all that?”
Shrugging, Trowa answered, “The same,” and took another slow sip from his mug.
Duo rested his chin on the palm of his hand, his eyes studying Trowa. “And I take it you’re not happy with that?” He watched as Trowa again shrugged, and gave it up as a lost cause. He’d never been able to get his friend to talk when he didn’t want to.
“Well,” he finally said, eager to end the silence, “I have to say that I know what you mean. That’s why I came out here in the first place. I’m bored of my city, of my job. The Preventer’s is the only thing I can think of that I haven’t done yet. So, here I am!” Duo brought up his hands in a questioning gesture, as if still not completely sure what he was doing.
Trowa smiled softly at him. “Maybe things will be more interesting if I have another pilot around.” Which was true. Being the only ex-pilot in his station weighed heavily on Trowa. Everyone seemed hesitant to approach him, whether out of fear, mistrust, or respect. The latter was the most common. So much respect he wanted to scream. Trowa was tired of being treated like he was somehow above the rest of the agents, as if he had access to secret law enforcement tactics, or whatever went through his coworkers’ heads.
“Woah, woah, wait a minute.” Duo waved his hands wildly, interrupting Trowa’s thoughts.
“Where’s Wufei? I thought he worked here with you.”
“Oh, you didn’t hear?” asked Trowa in a dead sort of voice. “He got a promotion. Transferred to L-1. He’s been up there for about three months, now.”
“Oh yeah? What’s he doing up there?” Duo idly stirred some more sugar into his coffee.
With a wave of his hand, Trowa answered, “High-profile cases. Stuff that Une doesn’t trust most people with.”
“Ah,” Duo said with a nod. He finished off his coffee with a happy hum. “Well, since Une is unlikely to trust me, I guess I’ll be left behind a desk if I really join up. Maybe it’ll be too confining... That’s why I switch jobs so often. Every once in a while I want to just get away, you know? Just go without thinking too hard about it.”
Trowa nodded slowly, but made no answer. Duo nudged his foot under the table.
“Well? How about you? Do you think you’d ever do something like that? Run away with me for a weekend?”
Rolling his shoulders into a shrug, Trowa stood up and said, “Let’s go. I have to get back to the office.” Duo grinned up at him and followed suit.
Before he knew it, he was throwing things into a duffel bag that he had used during the war and had long since buried in the back of his closet. He quickly ran through a checklist of necessary items, fitting everything neatly into the bag. Duo had scribbled his address on a scrap of paper for him earlier, which Trowa now folded into the back pocket of his jeans. Ten minutes later, he was standing outside Duo’s hotel room, waiting for him to open the door.
“Trowa?” asked Duo in surprise as he let the light from his room pour out into the hallway. “What’s up, couldn’t get enough of me this afternoon?” His cocky grin made Trowa’s stomach do a little flip.
“Let’s run away for the weekend. To just get away,” Trowa said, fighting down his self-consciousness and steeling himself for Duo’s reaction, hoping that he wouldn’t laugh.
To his surprise, Duo’s grin widened into a smirk, and he answered, “All right, then.”
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