lavandarlizard2 | I am now the proud owner

of a pot-load of fusiable, fuseable, fusable - whatever - web interfacing. ^__^ The prospect of a quilted Duo is getting closer...

And holy wow! O.O Man, has Cabazon *changed*!

More of the pink thing.... I think someone gave the hamsters a shot of adrenalin... The little furballs are tossing stuff at me faster than I can get it written. O.o Too bad none of it is stuff I need right now... *sigh* At least they're working again.

Relena started to come round within a few minutes. Duo saw the exact instant that she realised where she was and why. His hand covered her mouth before she had a chance to make noise.

“Don’t,” he breathed. “Those two are gone, but there are others on the other side, cleaning up the bodies. We’re going to have to sit tight for a while.”

He took his hand away and she sucked in a shallow breath. “He... he *shot* at me!” she whispered.

“Yeah...” He wondered if she realised yet that if he hadn’t pulled her aside, her head would have exploded just as the soldier’s chest had. She probably wouldn’t have had time to feel a thing. There were worse things than a painless death.

He continued to rub at his knee and ankle with his good hand. He didn’t dare remove his boot, he’d never get it back on, and his knee was swelling enough already to make his pants leg tight. This enforced break was both good and bad. Good, in that OZ would be widening their search and wouldn’t bother with this alley anymore. Bad, in that sitting around was only going to cause him to stiffen up. He didn’t even want to think of what was scuttling around in the garbage, just waiting for a chance to get into his bloodstream. His immune system was better than average, but no sense in pushing his luck.

“But... He shot at me...” The echo came out as a whimper.

Duo flicked his fingers at a rat that had poked its nose toward Relena. “Sorry, Relena, but these people don’t much care who else they kill. As far as they’re concerned, your name is Relena pain-in-the-butt-dammit. If you hang with us, they’ll be happy to kill you with us.” He looked up at the faint noise that escaped her. “That’s what Heero’s been trying to tell you. You can’t run around butting into our business. You damn near got Heero killed last month; it took me almost two hours to clean and stitch up that wound.” She seemed to be shrinking... Oh, the rats. “Just wave your hands at them; they’re curious, but they have plenty of food in here.”

She looked up at him, eyes wet and red. “Don’t they know who I am...?” she whimpered.

He blinked. The rats? Oh. No, we’re back to the Ozzies again....

“Relena,” he said softly, “They don’t *care* who you are. You are with a suspected Gundam pilot; that’s all they need to know. They would nail your grandmother if they caught her with one of us.” She seemed to be trying to digest the concept; frowning and blinking to chase away tears. Given her usual level of comprehension, he didn’t hold out any hope for a miracle.

He did feel some small bit of compassion for her. She was a spoiled, sheltered little girl suddenly let loose into a big angry world and trying to deal with that world in the way her parents had taught her. Too bad all those genteel manners and polite civilized behaviors didn’t apply here.

“Look, just accept that they will kill you as readily as they would kill me. We’re gonna have to wait until they finish on the other side. I’m not exactly going to be gliding silently into the night, and I don’t want to attract their attention. Just...” He looked around; one of the rats looked back at him speculatively, as if trying to decide if he was worth the trouble. He dug into the garbage next to him and came up with a discarded lump of... something that had once been on someone’s plate. The rat perked up. Duo offered the gross morsel; the rat crept over, sniffing, and plucked the stuff from his fingers and scurried off to the far corner. Two more rats followed.

“Just offer them food, or whatever; they’ll leave you alone as long as they eat.”

He could see the trembling of her lower lip. “If you cry,” he warned, feeling suddenly very tired, “Your eyes will burn and get all red and your nose will run and you’ll get all blotchy, but the problem will still be there. Crying won’t make any of it go away. But if you gotta do it, just do it quietly.”