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The crack of the rifle was still loud enough to be felt even through the ear protection. Duo nodded thoughtfully as he shaded his eyes, peering at the distant target.
“Down… a little to the right on all three,” he reported, then aimed a puzzled look at Heero as the other pilot waited to be cleared by the range attendant.
Just like at the last set of targets, Heero didn’t look bothered to not be landing perfect shots each and every time. He simply nodded and slung his weapon over his shoulder before starting on his way back to the rest of them.
“You’re last in points again,” Trowa said in a pointed voice.
“Those don’t matter,” Heero murmured as he grabbed the print-out emerging from the station terminal. On it was a simple depiction of their targets - one for each round of firing - marked with a dot showing where each shot had landed. It was strange seeing how unbothered Heero was by the quality of his marksmanship. If anything, he looked rather satisfied, actually.
Duo could only assume that Heero had silently discarded the point scoring system entirely and was running a game of his own. He was simply too calm for his shots to be naturally missing their mark. For whatever reason, he was choosing to miss the high-scoring shots.
Wufei let out a sound of pure irritation. “In this case, the points do matter. The director made it very clear she expects us to make a good showing on behalf of the Preventers. Which we won’t do if you continue dragging our score down!”
”Well…” Quatre gave a small sheepish shrug as Wufei pinned him with a fierce glare. “I mean, the tournament organizers know we’re Gundam pilots. They’re not going to exclude us from the finals no matter what. Well, not for having low points, at least.”
”I’m not getting into the finals on charity,” growled Wufei before stomping on ahead of them.
It was hard not to laugh at the sight of Wufei stalking along the neatly managed grass trail. At least the wooded area the range was set within continued to be pleasant to walk through. And the birds could still occasionally be heard in between the sound of the other teams tackling their own challenges.
It was nice. Super full of bugs and stuff, but still nice.
Duo hummed quietly to himself as he trotted along with one hand gripping the strap fixed to his own rifle. The next station would tip them over to the later half of the course. And with the end in sight, Duo could only assume Wufei’s blood pressure would reach new heights if Heero continued with his mysterious little game.
After all, in a shocking twist that wasn’t actually all that shocking, it turned out Wufei was competitive. And greatly displeased that they weren’t ruthlessly grinding all the other teams into dust.
Maybe… he needed to say something to Heero. Give him a poke. See if he’d set his private game aside before Wufei’s head exploded. Or he offended one of the other teams. At least the group that had been ahead of them didn’t seem too bothered by the nasty glare he aimed at them as they passed the rest area they’d temporarily retired to.
They were an interesting group - Russian, and made up of two mediocre shooters, two highly skilled shooters, and one who was riding pretty neatly in the middle. Wufei had been keeping track of their score, as well as those of all the other teams. The Russian group’s score was shockingly close to theirs, actually, thanks to Heero’s marksmanship.
If they didn’t do something to fix that soon, Duo was pretty sure Wufei was going to have a hernia.
The attendant at the next station greeted them and checked them in before going over what this round of shooting entailed: one standing shot and two fired prone, all at a modest seventy-five meter distance.
Easy and practically a guaranteed points sweep for them. Assuming Heero could be convinced to follow the official rules again.
Trowa went first and stepped up to the firing line with steady hands and pinpoint accuracy. (He’d taken Duo’s teasing about not getting to just ‘spray and pray’ a bit personally, actually, and was making a noticeable effort to be the top scorer for their group. If pressed, Duo would have claimed this was going according to plan, but in truth, he’d just been throwing shit around.)
“That was great, Trowa!” Quatre called out as the taller man finished making his shots. His sunny demeanor never faltered, nor did the rather blatant way he was ogling Trowa as their athletic friend slowly pushed himself back to his feet.
“Getting kind of distracted there, huh?” Duo asked in a light, teasing voice.
Quatre glanced at him, his eyes wide with seeming innocence. “I just feel lucky that Trowa’s willing to go first. You know I haven’t been in as many firefights as the rest of you.”
“Uh huh. And the fact that your eyes will not peel themselves off his ass?”
“I’m a fan of the arts.”
Even Wufei let out a startled laugh at that and moved to nudge Trowa’s side as he returned to the holding area.
While Quatre trotted forwards to take his turn (high accuracy, but a slower rate of fire that would result in a lower score), Duo caught Heero glancing back behind them with a considering look on his face. Then he dipped his head towards Wufei so he could be heard without having to pitch his voice too much to be heard through their ear pro.
“Are the points really bothering you that much?”
All traces of humor immediately vanished from Wufei’s face as he aimed a dark glare at Heero. “Yes.”
“Fine.” Heero still looked far too considering for someone planning to go out and hit three bullseyes in a row, so Duo siddled over to him the moment Wufei began stalking forwards to take his turn and waggled his eyebrows inquiringly. Heero simply grunted in response. “Where should I land them?”
Ooh, confirmation Heero was fucking around on purpose! How interesting…
“Up high this time?” Duo suggested. “You could alternate left and right if you want to add a challenge.”
Heero’s head turned slightly again, his eyes sliding around as he snuck a look behind them. His only answer was a thoughtful little hum that was quickly overtaken by the crack of Wufei’s rifle.
Still, it was telling. Heero was beefing with one of the Russians!
Wufei glowered at Heero all the way through dinner and didn’t relent even a bit until well afterwards.
“We did fine,” Quatre said, trying to reassure him. “I mean, tactically, we’re really well positioned! No one will be expecting us to do even better during the finals tomorrow.”
“We shouldn’t be planning a surprise tactical victory,” Wufei hissed. “It should be evident already that the other teams would be better served focusing on the battle for second place.”
“This is a charity event. People will dip into their wallets more with a good story to watch,” Trowa noted. He was going through their final print outs, leisurely perusing how they’d done with all the targets. Of course, with eighteen stages and five of them in total, there were a number of pages to go through. He’d been going over them for quite a while, actually.
“I don’t care about the damned charity-” Cutting himself off, Wufei forced himself to take a deep breath. “The event has already broken previous records simply from the pledges, after all, so… I guess... It’s actually… fine.”
“That actually physically hurt you to say, didn’t it?” Duo asked, staring at him with obvious fascination. “I could hear you grinding your teeth as you spoke.”
Wufei glared. “I don’t like losing.”
“We definitely know that!”
“Hm. Which shooter is number thirty-eight?” Trowa’s voice interrupted them and when they looked over, they found him holding a small set of papers up to the light.
Duo started giggling as Heero scowled. “You’ve been caught,” he said, kicking at his leg. “Number 38 is one of the Russians! He and Heero are beefing.”
“We’re not beefing-”
“38 was leaving his stage print-outs behind for Heero! Then when we passed their group, he started leaving his behind.”
“Is that why their shots are almost identical?” Trowa wondered. “I couldn’t figure out how you were picking your targets.”
Duo nodded sagely. “I couldn’t figure it out either at first, but then I saw Heero leaving his print-out behind and we all know he isn’t a litter-bug, so it was definitely on purpose! So I picked his pocket after that and realized the print-outs he was carrying around definitely weren’t his!”
“I’m not beefing with anyone,” Heero insisted. He glared when they all stared disbelievingly at him and folded his arms across his chest. “It’s a personal matter.”
“That’s beefing!”
Wufei had snatched the sheets away from Trowa and was staring at them in obvious shock. When the pages were stacked on top of each other and held up to the light, it was revealed that the dots marking each shot were remarkably close - sometimes even overlapped. “You were- This is- Are you kidding me?!”
“Is everything okay?” Quatre asked. “You can tell us anything, Heero, honest.”
“Everything’s fine.” Heero sighed softly. “Today was… about making a point. Tomorrow will be different.”
Wufei pointed an accusing finger at him. “It had better be. I will be holding you personally responsible if we don’t win. Maxwell-” The pointing finger shifted to Duo. “Grill him. Figure this out and inform us in the morning if it’s something of actual consequence and not something absolutely ridiculous.”
Duo threw up an immediate salute while Heero sputtered. Quatre and Trowa were both laughing - then started laughing even harder when Wufei rolled up the papers and smacked Heero on the head with them after surging to his feet.
It didn’t take long for the others to depart for their own rooms, leaving Duo and Heero behind in the living room of their Preventers’ provided rental cabin. Duo immediately swung into action, specifically by swinging himself into Heero’s lap and draping himself comfortably against his chest.
He was greeted with a soft huff, but an arm immediately wrapped around his waist. Duo reached up and ran his fingers along Heero’s cheek, offering up simple soothing touches as they adjusted to the quieter energy filling the room now. Heero gradually leaned into Duo’s hand as they breathed quietly together.
Finally, Duo asked a soft question. “How are you?”
“... I’m alright,” Heero said. “It was… a surprise seeing him.”
“Why’s that?”
Heero shrugged slightly. “He’s supposed to be dead.”
Duo sucked in a startled breath. “Yeah, that would make it surprising.”
He let the quiet just sit for a little while after that. Heero was frowning slightly with his head turned a little more into Duo’s hand, silently working through the matter at hand. And in response, Duo let his head rest on Heero’s shoulder as he settled in to wait.
“... his name is Odin Lowe. He’s an assassin. And… he used to take care of me.”
“Before Operation Meteor?”
“Yeah…” Heero lifted his head, eyes unfocusing some as he thought back. “I was six when… things happened. And he picked me up. I wouldn’t have survived without him. We traveled together for a few years, then…”
“He died?” Duo suggested when Heero’s voice trailed off. The air felt faintly fraught and Duo felt his insides shivering in quiet shock. Heero almost never talked about his past and he’d never, as far as Duo could recall, ever reached back to his life before Operation Meteor and the Barton Foundation.
But that was precisely where they were, and Heero nodded. “I watched him die. Or so I thought. He’d taken a job on an Alliance officer. It didn’t go well.”
“Right, assassin… but now he’s here.”
“He is. I’m not sure how, but…” Heero let out a sudden laugh, one touched with bitterness. “It’s ironic. He taught me his craft. It could be argued the Barton Foundation simply refined and expanded on his lessons. Perhaps I learned to defy death from him as well.”
“That seems like your kind of luck,” Duo murmured. “Is he dangerous? To us, I mean.”
“... probably not. I’ll need to actually talk to him to be certain. But after today, I doubt it.”
“You two were dueling today. He wouldn’t have done that if he was a threat to us, would he?”
“No. It was… fun,” Heero admitted. A small smile tugged at his lips. “He taught me to shoot, but I was a child back then with the kind of skills you’d expect. Being on an even playing field today was interesting.”
Duo hummed softly. Heero really was pleased and, no matter what he might say, Duo could see that he wanted to reconnect with Lowe. That did mean Heero wasn’t objective about the man - and flat-out declaring him an assassin meant they did need to take him very seriously, but…
A small laugh slipped out of him and Duo leaned in so he could press a gentle kiss to Heero’s mouth. And that kiss was returned, with one of Heero’s hands coming up to cup his head and hold him close. They lingered together, savoring being close before slowly drawing apart.
“Duo…”
“So today, you showed Lowe you can match him now. How about tomorrow we absolutely smoke him? Make him suffer for leaving you on your own before we sic Wufei on him?”
That startled a laugh out of Heero, who then let his chin dip down. “That would be… acceptable.”
“Great! Then we should head to bed. We need to get a full night’s rest if we’re gonna be Lowe,” Duo solemnly declared.
“Hn. I’m not sure you’re thinking of just resting,” Heero said with a soft smile.
“You said it, not me!” Duo laughed, then leaned in for another long kiss.
Yeah, they did need to rest, but maybe… they could do some other stuff first.
“Maxwell, report!” Wufei’s sharp bark cracked loudly through the small confines of their car and Duo grinned sharply, throwing up a salute and just barely managing to keep from catching Quatre in the eye with his elbow.
“Shooter thirty-eight is Odin Lowe, Heero’s assassin teacher dad! We’re beefing with him, but in a casual way!”
Wufei choked while Quatre let out a startled warble. Even Trowa jerked in surprise, which wasn’t great considering he was driving.
“He’s exaggerating,” Heero said with a sigh from his seat in the front passenger seat. Like Duo, he didn’t seem overly bothered by the sudden jerky movement of the car.
“Not by much. He is completely dad-coded, and if he won’t conform, we’ll just squish him until he does.”
“... I don’t know what part of all that to get into first,” Quatre said in a faint voice.
“The beefing is the main thing,” Duo declared. “Our number one goal isn’t to win, it’s to make certain we beat him and rub his nose in it. We’ll get into all the rest later. Heero said you can have at him after the finals, Wufei.”
Wufei gave Duo a look of faint horror. “Meaning… what, exactly?”
“Preventer stuff, but unofficially, maybe?” Duo shrugged. “Because of the assassin part.”
“He’s an actual assassin?” Trowa asked.
Heero glanced at him. “Do you want a list of his jobs? What I know is out of date, but there are some prominent names… Hn, actually, some of the ones he gets credit for might actually be some of my first-”
“Please don’t,” Wufei said in a strangled voice.
“... most of them were members of organized crime, if that helps.”
“It doesn’t.”
“I think… it would be better to focus on the present,” Quatre suggested with a small gulp. “History gets so… complicated… for us.”
Duo nodded in agreement. “Right, we have to focus on beating the snot out of him. And I think that’s something we can all get behind.”
“We can… if everyone is actually trying today,” Wufei said, pivoting back to the tournament with visible effort.
“I hit everything I intended to yesterday,” Heero retorted.
“I need you to intend to score some actual damned points today.”
Shrugging, Heero folded his arms across his chest. “That should be fine. Odin will be putting forward real effort today too, though. So be ready for that.”
Wufei’s eyes immediately narrowed. “Is he good?”
“Good enough to make a living at it for over twenty years.”
“Right…”
“Since you and he were keeping pace,” Trowa began, “I assume that means Odin Lowe was the mid-tier shooter of his group yesterday? I wonder if the others in his group were concealing their level of relative skill…”
That caused Wufei to hiss. “They could completely upend things. No one is allowed to hold back today.”
“Yeah, or Wufei’s gonna be super mad!”
“Shut up, Maxwell!”
Duo just laughed, pleased to see the others starting to properly relax as well. There really hadn’t been any way to drop the bombshell about who Lowe was without it being a shock. Especially given how they were all working so hard to be on the straight and narrow these days. (Well, mostly. Heero still considered rules and laws optional guidelines, but he mostly used his law breaking for good so everyone did their best to ignore it.)
He had no clue how they were going to handle Lowe once the tournament ended so…
Yeah, he figured keeping everyone focused on right now would be best. They were gonna go shoot things and just see what happened.
The energy during the finals proved to be very different. They weren’t the only ones who’d taken it relatively easy during the qualifiers, as it turned out, and there were a number of shake-ups as the teams determinedly battled for points. With Heero bringing his efforts into alignment with the actual rule set, the Gundam pilots found themselves leading the pack… but it was a lot tighter than any of them had been expecting.
Wufei’s glares returned, of course. The top teams from the qualifiers had gotten bonus points for their previous showing and they hadn’t made that cut. But those dark looks were as useless today as they had been the day before; Heero’s focus continued to center around Odin Lowe, only instead of wordlessly dueling with the man from afar, they weren’t bothering to hide the fact that they’d noticed each other.
They still weren’t interacting directly, but they both kept glancing at each other when the other person wasn’t looking and damned if Duo or anyone else could figure out what it meant. All they had to go on was the fact that Heero didn’t seem bothered or upset at the attention.
The crack of gunfire rent the air as the teams moved through the different stages. The pace of everything was much faster than the day before as everyone flew through the different rounds as efficiently as they could. They stood, knelt, and stretched out prone as each stage demanded, then also took off to tackle the stages that had been modified for the finals to include shooting on the go. (The paths were marked with colorful tape and the targets were numbered. The new additions added some fun variety, even if they weren’t actually all that challenging.)
Duo patted Wufei on the shoulder as they finished at the final stage, trying to offer him some encouragement. “Come on, loosen up. We’ve done great!”
“We could still easily lose this,” Wufei retorted. “And worse, the director’s here to watch. I refuse to be seen as weak before her!”
“Dude, chill. Une just wants us to help put out good PR, right?” asked Duo. “Show people we’re not crazy, let people see the Preventers as doing helpful stuff, that kind of thing. We’ve totally done that.”
“Just because you’re an unemployed layabout-”
“Ah ah, hey, no.” Duo’s voice was sharp as interrupted him. “Heero’s the unemployed layabout, not me. I work for a living, thank you very much.”
“You spend all day digging through scrapheaps while Hilde does the actual work of running the business,” Wufei said in a flat voice.
Duo clutched at his chest, staggering in an exaggerated fashion as though wounded. “Wufei! The judgement. The lack of respect! The belittlement of vital recycling efforts and the plight of the common man-”
That earned him a groan as Wufei rubbed at his face. Straightening up, Duo clapped him on the back.
“I will forgive you,” he said, making certain to radiate generosity and charity. “But only if you agree to come up to L2 and hang out, man. It’s clearly been too long since you went crawling through a rubbish heap looking for diamonds in the rough. I’ll make Heero come, too! He pretends he doesn’t like the work but you should see the stuff he can find and clean up. It’s nuts. He’s got a knack for it.”
There was a long pause as they watched Heero obliterate the center of the target, shooting with such precision that the first hole in the paper simply got a little bigger with each shot. This was the kind of shooting Wufei had been despairing about the day before; when he felt inclined towards it, Heero could literally send multiple rounds into the exact same spot. It was, in fact, absolutely insane.
Wufei answered after Heero’s final shot. “I may have spoken a bit harshly.”
“... you think?”
“And uncharitably.” Sighing, Wufei bowed his head briefly. “I apologize.”
“You’re forgiven. And you’re still coming up to L2,” Duo said. “I think you need to get away from competitions for a while, yeesh.”
“Hmph. Speaking of…”
“Yeah… Man, I think that team just brought Lowe in as a ringer,” Duo said as they watched the Russians approach.
Heero, Quatre, and Trowa moved out of the way so the new team could take their turn, then came over to join Duo and Wufei in observing. Lowe went first and the man’s skill truly shone as he took aim at the targets. They’d been able to observe throughout the day that none of his teammates had been able to up their game all that much. The two mediocre shooters remained mediocre while the others only made marginal improvements over their previous efforts.
The change in Lowe’s display of skill, though, had done a lot to pull their team score up. It wouldn’t be enough to secure them victory, but it was one hell of a showing nonetheless.
And to think this man had been so pivotal in raising Heero… Oh, but Duo wanted to just crawl around inside the man’s head and see what made him tick. What, exactly, had he passed on to Heero beyond simple skills? Heero wouldn’t have cared if he’d just been his teacher, there must be more to their relationship.
… Duo had joked earlier about Odin Lowe being dad-shaped, but he wondered if he hadn’t been pretty close to the mark. Even now, Heero was calmly standing and watching the man shoot, one hand holding the strap of his rifle while the other was shoved into a pocket on his jeans. He wasn’t worried about him. He didn’t register as a potential threat on any level for him, which was a hell of a thing. Heero didn’t even give most Preventer agents that kind of grace.
The final gunshot rang through the air and Lowe set his weapon down, waiting patiently to be cleared by the range assistant so he could step back behind the firing line. And when he did, he gave his teammates a casual nod as the next one stepped up, but then his gaze panned over… to them.
Lowe’s eyes were an ordinary brown, nothing as remarkable or stunning as Heero’s shining blue. But there was energy to them, enough that Duo found his back straightening and the God of Death stirring faintly in the back of his head. Oooh, but Lowe was dangerous. Duo could practically taste the blood on him, though… He didn’t think…
No, it wasn’t personal. He was probably reading too much into a single glance, but nothing about Lowe felt like he killed for pleasure. He was a killer, a hit man, but more than that…
He was a professional. Even now, as his gaze left Duo’s and started flicking over the other Gundam pilots, the evaluation didn’t feel predatory or threatening. He was simply taking their measure.
The man’s eyes did linger on Heero. The pair studied each other calmly, openly considering each other for the first time in two days.
Heero’s hand shifted, the one holding his rifle. It rotated around the strap, his thumb sliding between his pointer and middle fingers-
Trowa let out a startled laugh while Lowe’s watching teammates hooted in sudden amusement. And Odin Lowe grinned, his entire countenance lighting up with obvious delight at what must have been a pretty crass gesture given the tone of voice the Russians were using as they started shouting insults at them.
The rude gesture was gone by the time Lowe’s teammate finished his round and the next stepped up. And there was definitely amusement on Heero’s lips, too, as the older man turned back so he could at least pretend he cared about his team.
Okay, yeah, they couldn’t just throw Lowe into some random Preventers jail cell, Duo decided. This was someone they needed to get to know. And he kept that thought filed away as they turned to head to the main building where the director and food awaited them.
Une arched an eyebrow at them as they made their bumbling way towards her, loaded down with drinks and tiny plates piled high with food that quickly dominated the small, tall, and very round table she was standing next to. “Congratulations,” she said, tilting her head towards the projector screen hanging nearby showing the final rankings. They were, of course, number one with Lowe’s group sitting several ranks below them all. “I couldn’t help but notice some interesting looks being thrown around, though.”
Her gaze was expectant as she looked from one person to the next. And how should they respond… They were still very much in public, very much surrounded by curious ears and people who thought Gundam pilots more akin to zoo animals than actual people. Hmm…
Lowe passed by while they all exchanged looks, trying to decide who should have the first go at explaining. He looked at them, too, pausing just long enough to give Une a respectful nod before shifting his gaze to Heero.
After a few moments, he shook his head and continued on, though it had to be deliberate for them to be able to hear his muttered words as he departed.
“After ten years, he’ll finally eat a goddamned vegetable on his own, praise be.”
It took mere moments for the implications of that statement to sink in. And Duo wanted to swoon with absolute delight. Heero, meanwhile, stared calmly back at them all while also taking a pointed, and somewhat savage, bite of a carrot stick.
“I seem to be missing something,” Une said with some exasperation.
“Backstory,” Duo said as a way of explaining. “Details still to come.”
“Well, that sounds fascinating.”
Further conversation was interrupted by the event organizers, who stepped up to begin the dramatic speechifying Duo had been dreading. He sighed softly at the weak opening joke, then the long list of donors and sponsors who needed to be acknowledged. It was easy enough to scoot over to Heero, thankfully, who didn’t protest when Duo started reaching for his plate when his own ran empty. The other man’s presence was warm and solid, and if Duo didn’t know much he’d want to just start petting at Heero’s face and hair, he’d have latched onto him, too, so he could further enjoy his company.
Awards were given out, of course. They sent Quatre up to collect theirs, as he had more experience with this sort of thing and somehow continued to appear like the sweetest, kindest, and most innocent of the five of them.
That perception was laughably wrong, but hey - the people who knew better were keeping their mouths shut so it was fine.
Duo was considering making a go at sneaking over to the buffet table again when Heero suddenly stiffened beside him. Oops, something was happening-
And that something was an invitation for the top shooters of the whole event to do a quick straight-up shooting contest for final bragging rights. No teams, just a single station, and the simplest possible points system.
Heero, of course, was their top shooter, with Trowa not too far behind him. A few other shooters from some of the other teams were invited to join in, but the only other person of real interest was Lowe.
“While Heero’s away…” Une prompted as Heero and Trowa stepped away to go collect their rifles and gear.
“Backstory,” Duo said, repeating his vague explanation from earlier. “Ooold backstory, like, over a decade ago. We’re still getting details.”
“From what little the rest of us have learned,” Quatre added in a quiet voice. “It sounds like Lowe’s well connected to a number of interesting events.”
“And that he’s likely to be a headache if we dig into it,” Wufei muttered. He grimaced briefly as Une glanced at him. “I’m not sure we want to unpack it all. Not officially, at least.”
“I look forward to learning more, then,” Une said, then they had to let it all go as the crowd began to shift around them as everyone jockeyed to get a good view of the screens showing the shooters gathered down at one of the nearby firing stations.
The simple competition unfolded quickly. There were relatively few shooters, for one thing, and they were the best out of everyone attending the tournament; they knew what they were doing and moved through the process of setting up and breaking everything back down in swift order. The setup wasn’t anything strange or fancy, either. There was a table serving as the main firing station and a range assistant keeping a sharp eye on everything. Ammunition was only handed over to the person stepping up to shoot and limited to the number of allowed shots. It was as well managed as the rest of the tournament had been. The only casual element was that they didn’t draw lots or lay out a set order for the shooters to take their turns, instead letting them just take turns volunteering to go next.
Heero, Trowa, and Lowe hung back and let everyone else go ahead of them first, standing patiently off to the side while the other shooters milled about. Which was probably better for general morale, honestly, and had the lovely side effect of giving them time to watch Heero and Lowe stand side by side as they waited for their turn.
“I never noticed before, but Heero shoots like a Russian,” Une suddenly murmured when Heero finally stepped up to take his turn.
“Wait, what?” Duo was so startled he actually took his eyes off the screen for a few moments to look at her.
“Oh, it isn’t anything to do with actually shooting,” Une said. “That’s fairly universal. But some cultures have some unique idiosyncrasies when it comes to gunhandling and Heero’s actually got a few of those tells. Of course, I can’t say that I’ve seen him with a rifle all that often so that may explain why I’ve never noticed.”
“Yeah, he’s more of a handgun or machine gun kind of guy,” Duo agreed.
On the screen, Heero fired quickly, then glanced at the range assistant and waited until the man verified his rifle was empty before he lowered his weapon. Everything he did looked perfectly normal to Duo’s eyes, but Une was nodding again like she’d spotted something.
Lowe stepped up next and Duo suddenly found himself pausing. Not because he could suddenly see, ‘Oh yeah, that’s totally a Russian thing-’ but more that Lowe laid his gear out the exact same way Heero did. Or maybe, it was more accurate to say that Heero laid his gear out the same way Lowe did.
Which made sense considering Heero’s statement about Lowe being the one to teach him to shoot.
Interesting. Interesting, interesting, inter-esssting.
The older man took his shots. They were slightly slower than Heero’s, but - devastatingly - Duo thought Lowe had been a smiiiidge more accurate. He was glad he didn’t have to score this match, honestly. That seemed like a headache waiting to happen.
Trowa went last and they all watched closely. And-
Sure, Trowa laid his things out differently. The rifle lay on a different side when Trowa put it down, the empty magazine rested in a different spot. And he did go through his set-up in a bit of a different order and with a different rhythm. Trowa was still fast, though, and had his firearm up and ready to use in the flash of an eye.
Maybe there really was something different enough in how they all handled their weapons for someone to be able to track and identify. If it existed, Duo didn’t have the eyes to see it. But it was interesting to think about, the idea that those sorts of little tells existed.
The rifle sang and Duo fought back a laugh as Trowa’s fingers twitched over the trigger once he’d used up all his ammo. One thing that was clear was Trowa’s inherent desire to be able to pull the trigger again and call down a veritable tsunami of bullets to ensure his target was utterly destroyed.
Someone get him a machine gun, Duo thought, cackling to himself all the while. Trowa didn’t believe in halfway measures.
Duo was still grinning to himself when the shooters began to make their way back to the main building. They’d need a bit of extra time to register and store the guns, but Duo felt confident he could find something to do before they made their way back inside and the final winner was announced. Pass through the buffet a second time, for one thing…
Heero and Lowe paused for a few moments before Heero rejoined them, hovering just to one side of the doorway as they both scanned the room. Trowa lingered close by as well, keeping a discrete eye on the pair and their interaction.
“Прошло столько лет, а ты все еще сопляк.,” murmured Lowe.
Heero’s reply was short. “Нам нужно поговорить.”
“Ладно. Но позже,” to which Lowe added a sparse nod. Something flashed in his hand before Heero reached out to take it, then they went their separate ways, seemingly unconcerned with each other anymore.
“All good?” Duo asked as the other pilots returned to their table.
“Hn. Fine.”
“There were no issues,” Trowa confirmed.
“What did he give you?” Wufei asked. His eyes were on the projector screen, which was being updated in real-time to display the final scores for the event. He snorted softly as Heero ended up ranked just behind Lowe with Trowa not too far behind him.
Heero shrugged slightly and laid a business card on the table. It had text in both Russian and English, and what parts of it Duo could read simply said, “Security One”. Une picked up the card and inspected it, then flipped it over to see the hand-written phone number scrawled across the back.
“We gotta call soon,” Duo said, feeling entirely, and unreasonably excited.
“Later,” Heero said in a firm voice.
“Right, right, right…”
Still, no matter when they reached out? It was verifiable fact that bringing Odin Lowe into everything was going to make it all just plain fascinating.