X13 – PART 5
Trowa didn’t manage to stumble into the study until several hours later, knowing that was where the others would gather, waving briefly at Wufei before he raided the liquor cabinet. Ignoring the abrupt silence, he located a bottle of scotch and brought it to a chair with him, not bothering with a glass. After taking several gulps directly from the bottle, he leveled a glare at Heero, who was very close to grinning. “Not one word, Yuy,” he growled dangerously.
“Do I need to mention you look as if you were in a battle…and lost?” Wufei inquired, dark eyes glittering. “You’ve even been wounded. I can call Sally if you need medical attention.”
“Shut up.”
Quatre was giggling but held up a hand before Wufei could retort. “Are you going to be okay, Trowa? You really do look like you’ve had a rough day.”
The knowledge that he was with his closest friends allowed Trowa to let go of the rigid control he had pulled around him as soon as he had left Duo, control he couldn’t keep when the long-haired man touched him, and shook his head, seeing the humor. “Honestly, I hope to never have another day like this one. It could very well be the end of me.”
What would have been a chuckle for anyone else was full-blown mirth when it came from Heero. “Can we assume Duo is as energetic in bed as he is out of it?”
“That is none of your damn business, but yes.” Glad to hear Heero confirm he and Duo had never been together, Trowa waited until the laughter faded before addressing the matter they had been discussing when he had come in, “No luck on the agents?”
Wufei rose and snatched the bottle from Trowa’s hand, going to get several glasses and pouring them each a healthy portion, even Quatre who didn’t usually drink. “That’s what took me so long. Between Une, Heero, Quatre, and myself we’ve been through almost every agent that was in that room. No one jumps out as a suspect other than Warren,” he shook his head when speaking of the man Duo had lectured in front of the entire room.
“I don’t think it could have been him,” Heero offered, sipping his drink slowly. “Duo embarrassed him, but he knows Duo was right. He’s an old school agent that really believes in what he’s doing. He wouldn’t risk jeopardizing his career over this.”
“Or his pride,” Quatre added with a smile. “Also, there wouldn’t have been time for him to plan this, unless he happened to have some of that drug on hand. Didn’t Sally say this stuff was hard to find?”
Wufei’s expression was grim as he nodded. “The only reason we even have a sample is because someone sent it from L2. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of it.”
“I think it originated from L2. It’s rare, even there.”
Trowa was across the room in a matter of seconds to help Duo, weak from the drug and lack of real food, tired from the strenuous exercise he had taken part in. Feeling the other man tremble, Trowa picked him up and carried Duo to the chair he had just vacated. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”
Recognizing concern in the emerald eyes, Duo smiled and shook his head slowly, “I tried to, but I started thinking.” Trowa winced at the rough quality of the smaller man’s voice, clearly ravaged and sore.
“Uh-oh.”
“Kiss ass, Fei.” The threat didn’t carry any real heat, soft enough to almost be termed a whisper.
“I believe that’s Trowa’s job now, isn’t it?” Wufei grinned impishly, “You need him to kiss your boo-boos?”
“You better be glad your girlfriend’s a doc, Chang. When I feel better I’m gonna kick your ass. And it is Trowa’s job now, thank you very much,” Duo added with a blush that deepened when Trowa sat at his feet, wrapping one arm around his leg.
“I’ll remember that,” the tall man commented idly, inciting snickers and chuckles. “Back to business. What were you thinking about, Duo? Other than that,” he added quickly when Duo wiggled his eyebrows.
“The symptoms I was having. It’s how I realized what drug was being used. We’ve had a couple of cases on L2 that weren’t as severe. Rich kids treated at the hospital and sent home.” Taking Trowa’s glass, Duo drained the rest of the contents. “One of our agents managed to talk to the kids about where they got the drug. Dealer’s name was Flip. Just happens to be someone I knew back in the day, so I went to have a chat. Flip didn’t know where he got the drug, said it just showed up in his apartment one day with instructions, signed by someone named Sam.”
“You believed him?”
Duo’s eyes glittered as he nodded at Wufei, “Flip’s more scared of me than anyone else. He told the truth.”
“What were the instructions?”
With a frown that revealed how disturbed Duo was about the directions, he repeated what he had been told. “Each specimen was to be given one-third of the vial as a dose. Flip was selling each dose for six-thousand creds. Eighteen thou for a full vial.”
“Who in their right mind would give six-thousand credits for a drug?” demanded Wufei.
When Duo’s fingers tickled the back of his neck, Trowa reached back and took it. Sensing the tension, he waited for his new lover to reply. “You can’t understand, Wufei. If I had been given a normal dose I would’ve fought it because I don’t like not being in control. We’re all like that. I can understand why someone would do it, though. It was…a rush. It could give you the courage to approach someone you wouldn’t have before, or try something you had been afraid to do before. Rich kids on L2 are just as stuck as the poor are; they can just afford better entertainment.”
“I don’t get it.” Wufei crossed his arms over his chest.
“Haven’t you ever wanted to do something but didn’t want to bring it up because you were embarrassed? Have any of you thought about how it would feel to tie someone up, or have them tie you up?” Duo’s voice was low and full of desire. Trowa shifted uncomfortably at the words, aware he had thought of the same thing at some point in his life. Seeing the others also shifting helped him feel better as Duo continued to speak softly. “It lowers your inhibitions, makes you willing to do almost anything. It also makes you think of things you wouldn’t have before. While you’re thinking about it you can almost feel what it would be like. I’ll be honest, once I understood what was wrong with me I enjoyed the hell out of it.”
Wufei let out a long breath, “I see your point. Everyone has fantasies and this drug caters to that.”
“Exactly. That’s what makes X-13 so dangerous.”
Heero nodded in agreement then sat forward, elbows on his knees. “Why hasn’t there been more of it on the streets? With something this potent, a dealer could make a fortune.”
“Flip had four vials. That’s all that was left for him and no more has turned up. Three vials were sold and Flip turned the fourth over to me. That was how the other Preventer offices got samples, I sent them.”
“So one of those vials worked its way into your coffee cup,” Trowa noted with a grimace.
Duo slapped his free hand on the arm of the chair, although the slap was weak. “Damnit, everything leads right back to Hilde, doesn’t it? She knows Flip, not by name, but he’s been around long enough for her to be aware of what he is.”
“We won’t know until we can speak to her in person.” Trowa leaned his head back on Duo’s knee, surprised how easy it was to touch the other man while others were watching. “Will you be able to talk to her? She might speak to you when she won’t speak to anyone else.”
Giving the matter some serious thought, Duo decided it would be too difficult for him to have a polite chat with the black-haired woman that had made his life hell for several years. “If I talk to her I’m gonna kill her,” he told his friends bluntly. “It’s still hard for me to believe she could come up with something this elaborate on her own.”
“Didn’t you say she was having some financial difficulties the last time you were here?” Only Quatre would remember that kind of information when it had only been briefly mentioned.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Duo frowned when Trowa’s hand tightened around his leg. “She wanted me to co-sign a loan for her so she wouldn’t lose the salvage business.”
“Did you?”
The long-haired man gave Wufei a glare. “Are you kidding? It would be another way for her to get her claws into me. Think about it. I would’ve been responsible for her bills, so I would have to call every single time she was late with a payment.”
“She would’ve been late every month so she could talk to you with a legitimate reason,” assumed Trowa, wondering how they hadn’t known how bad the situation had gotten.
“I offered to buy the business, but she didn’t want that either. She wanted me to buy into the business and become a partner. I wasn’t willing to do that.”
“So if she’s in such a financial slump, how could she get her hands on eighteen-thousand credits for a drug?” Heero shook his head, clearly troubled. “How would Hilde even know what to get? She doesn’t seem like the type to know about drugs.”
The room fell silent as they all thought about it, none of them able to come up with a reasonable explanation. Duo yawned widely, shaking his head in hopes of clearing some of the exhaustion nipping at his heels. “The more questions we come up with, the less any of this makes sense.”
“It’s late and we all need some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to figure out what we’re missing. I suggest we all stay here tonight as a precaution. This might not be a single attack,” Quatre noted as he rose and rubbed his face wearily.
Trowa turned around to see if Duo had anything to add, laughing softly as he saw the other man’s head resting against the wing of the chair, already half-asleep. Rising to his feet, Trowa inclined his head to the others in lieu of a goodbye and picked Duo up from the chair. “He’ll be staying with me,” he commented.
Once he got to his room he got Duo settled under the blankets then locked the door, unwilling to take any chances. When he climbed into bed it was satisfying to have Duo curl into him while asleep, tossing a leg over Trowa’s and nestling his head on Trowa’s shoulder as if it was where he was meant to be. Wrapping his arm around the smaller man, Trowa let his fingers trail along Duo’s spine, eventually drifting off to sleep with Duo’s body as close to his as possible.