FicWad

TITLE: CAPTAINS
FANDOM: Gundam Wing
PAIRING: 1x2 and some het pairings in the background
RATING: R/NC-17
GENRE: AU, Adventure, Historical, Romance
WARNING: yaoi, crossdressing, swearing, graphic violence, sex
DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything save for the story, so please don't sue poor little me
SUMMARY: The Caribbean in the time of pirates. Duo Maxwell is an infamous captain pirate bored with easy lays. His life will get much more interesting when he meets the dark Navy Captain Heero Yuy in the most unusual circumstances.

Chapter 16: The Mourning After

Duo had had to relate the events of the previous night for Quatre's benefit. He glossed heavily over most of the details as he had no intention to dwell on what his captivated audience would have probably thought to be the interesting bits. In the end, the complicated story was condensed to a basic tale of an incompetent intruder surprised in the middle of his evil deeds and being promptly knocked out by the vigilant Shinigami. Innocuous tale, really. Didn't warrant any attention. And yet, Quatre found substance enough to mock his Captain in even those boring bland facts. For some reason, the formidable pirate using a candelabra to confront the brigand like a helpless maiden instead of a more manly sword seemed to be hilarious. Duo was all the more relieved that he hadn't given into the impulse to confess to his friend what had really transpired in that cabin; "manly sword" indeed. It would have been yet more ammunition in Quatre's already considerable teasing arsenal. Moreso, with or without witness of that debacle, Duo wasn't all that eager to question his own feelings on the whole matter. "Let sleeping dogs lie," as goes the saying.

Once properly informed of the situation, Quatre had gone to check out the stowaway and wasn't all that happy with his findings. "Don't you think it was a little harsh to bind him so tight? He's already unconscious; what did you think he would do?"

"I was tired Quatre. I wanted to sleep and wasn't all that comfortable doing so in the presence of a possible assailant. So sorry for caring for my skin."

The Prince graced him with a dubious expression. "And the gag? Was it to prevent him for crawling to you and bite?"

Duo reddened. "Huh... he could have woken me up...? By screaming for example..."

Quatre glanced at him with disbelief and shook his head. "Duo, he's unconscious! He won't be screaming anytime soon."

"Still?"

"What?"

"Is he still unconscious? Not sleeping?"

Quatre got back to watching the lying man and poked him in the shoulder. There wasn't any reaction. "Oi? You alive or did our respected Captain do you in?" The only answer was Duo's disapproving hiss. The blond got closer and lifted the man's lids to check his pupils. He then turned back to Duo with a somewhat worried look.

"What time did you say it was when that you knocked him out?"

"Hmm... dunno exactly. It was a little after we got back I guess."

"Well, he's still unconscious. It's not good. You could have checked him out sooner, you selfish cur!"

"Quatre! The bloke is an intruder and he attacked me! Why should I be concerned with his well-being? And anyway, I just woke myself; it's not like I had any time to baby him." His tone was disgruntled, bordering indignant.

"That's no reason to leave him to die on your floor. You might at least have put him in bed with you."

"What? Are you out of your mind? I don't sleep with the enemy!"

"Oh for God's sake! Come off of it! I just think a little kindness wouldn't kill you, but your attitude might just kill him. We've got to bring him to Sally."

"No can do." Duo had his stubborn pout on and even Quatre always had trouble reasoning with him when he was like that. That time however, the Prince was determined to get what he wanted. He sighed, disheartened at the thought of the task awaiting.

"You bashed his skull in. Regardless of what he's done, the right thing to do is to give him the care he needs. We have to get him to a doctor. We can even let him at the clinic after if you want."

"That's what I said: we can't." At Quatre's annoyed grunt, he added urgently: "He's a soldier and he knows who I am. We can't release him, let alone parade him around Port-Royal."

His friend studied the intruder once again with a thoughtful frown. "How do you know he's a soldier? He isn't in uniform and I thought you didn't have time to talk...?"

Duo was stuck and had no other choice but to relent part of the truth. "I know him. That's the Captain Lowe... Relena's fiancé..."

Quatre startled and whirled fast enough to give himself whiplash. "Lowe? Do you mean he followed us here? Didn't you think to mention that little piece of information before? That's big trouble! The guy probably had the time to put everything together... Oh Allah! What are we going to do?"

"For now he's not that big a problem anyway. We can throw him in the hold and see what he says once he wake up..."

Quatre was thinking and taking his time while at it. When he spoke at last, it was with the returned confidence of someone used to devise sound plans. "My initial opinion stands. He should see a doctor... Shut up Duo! We don't need a dead Sank's Captain tied to us in anyway, so we have to make sure he'll be okay. Furthermore, we need him awake to know exactly what he learned. For all we know, he might just be angry that you slept with his girl and be seeking retribution." Quatre ignored Duo's doubtful expression and continued explaining his strategy without missing a beat. "You're right on not wanting to be seen with him however. I'll send Abdul to get Sally; she looks like the type to not ask too many questions. Once she says he's good to go, and only then, we'll see about where to keep him. I agree that the hold is a viable option but it is not my preferred choice. You have to concede it's a poor place to host a wounded man."

Duo didn't agree with every parts of the plan but in the end, still went with it because he couldn't come with a better one. He was also determined to have his way regarding the hold. Quatre was a nice chap but there was no way he would let him treat the Captain Lowe like a treasured guest; it would be the surest way to have the man land in his cabin once again and that wasn't an option.

They sent Hernan out to the clinic after failing to locate Abdul or Auda anywhere on the ship. They were probably still sleeping above the Barking Parrot in some ladies' arms -Quatre hoped so anyway because the fortune Duo had spent for them last night should at least have warranted the whole night. Hernan was a better choice all around as he had been the earliest in bed and should be able to take over from Rashid in watching over the ailing crew's recovery. The only inconvenient in assigning the Spanish man to the task was that he was prone to babble and it was doubtful that he would discretely take Sally aside to explain why her presence was required. Thus, it came as no surprise when the Lady Doctor came up the gangway in company of not only the bound-to-bed Rashid but with a furiously ranting Wufei in tow. Duo sighed while Quatre looked on the proceedings with sadistic glee. The past days hadn't been any fun with Wufei moping around. It was heart-warming to see him in a more healthy disposition, even if that meant he would be insufferable. After all Quatre knew enough about his Chinese friend to guess that the worse of his indignation would be directed at their Captain, as it usually was. Quatre himself was in the clear.

Wufei started lecturing as soon as he set foot in Duo's cabin while Rashid looked on disapproving. Quatre pretended to ignore the three of them and directed the doctor to her patient. She was none too pleased to find the latter bound and on the floor; she expressed her displeasure with a few colourful expletives which Quatre recorded dutifully for later use. Sally accepted his half-assed explanation as of why the man was restrained and left it at that. Her face was still scrunched up in rebuke and stayed that way through the entirety of her examination.

Quatre had grown impervious to women's dissatisfaction years ago; it had been a matter of survival while growing up with so many older sisters. He wasn't bothered by Sally's bad mood and kept his smile firmly in place. In truth, nothing could have wiped that smile off when such an entertaining conversation --if it could be called that-- was taking place behind his back. Wufei was certainly imaginative: Quatre himself wouldn't have come up with justifying his past wrath in Sank when he had almost ruined their cover as a preemptive reprimand to Duo's all new blunder of letting a soldier infiltrate the Sandrock. It was all the more brilliant because Wufei, failing to understand how the very nature of preemptiveness should negate the use of any further retroactive action, was re-enacting the old argument against an unusually meek Duo. He was getting away with this unjust abuse too as his opponent had given up early on on the pointless fight. Shinigami's strategy was sound too; most times, it was much more efficient to let Wufei rant on until he tired enough to drop the matter. That was even truer when the Chinese man had gotten little to no sleep in the past days and should thus be faster in succumbing to exhaustion.

In the end, Wufei ended his lecture when an almost convincingly sincere Duo accepted the blame for every single one of their problems. The disgruntled pony-tailed man would have still argued further just for the sake of arguing but Sally stepped in without missing a beat. The cunning woman had wasted no time in understanding their little dynamics and knew that she wouldn't have another opportunity, if she didn't seize that one.

"Now if you children are quite finished, you might want to know how your captive is fairing. At least, I thought it was the reason I had been summoned?"

The four pirates looked at her with various degree of sheepish, appearing properly chastised. Duo was always surprised to see how the proper expression of scorn on an older woman's face could still make him feel like the naughty choirboy he hadn't been for so many years. Bloody nuns sure had made a lasting impression!

"Good! The wound was still oozing a bit and wouldn't have closed properly on its own so I put in a few stitches. I didn't notice any break in the skull and his vitals are okay. I wouldn't be that worried about him not being awake yet. It's often the case with head wounds and there is no way to know how long one is gonna be unconscious after such a blow. Honestly, there is nothing more I can do, but I'm fairly optimistic: he appears to have been in good health prior to the trauma and should pull through. However, you might want to install him somewhere comfortable, because muscular stiffness could make him worse... but what the Hell I know? I'm just the doctor after all... I'd like to see him again when he'll wake up to do another examination. You know where to find me."

No one had dared to interrupt the stern Lady Doctor's tirade and everyone had stayed adequately humbled through it all. Even on their best behaviour however, the pirates didn't win more than a contemptuous glare and a disgusted snort before Sally exited the premises without once looking back.

Rashid followed her departure with wary eyes and went back to the dormitory he shared with his fellow Arabs to nurse a mounting tension headache. Wufei was trying to hide his disappointment at being reprimanded by the angry woman he had not so secretly grown fond of. Meanwhile, the other too exchanged a meaningful glance and shrugged; that wasn't the first tongue-lashing either of them received nor would it be the last one, and that wasn't like there was much they could do about it. Instead, they got to work on more pressing matters, beginning by trying to sort the new sleeping arrangements as Quatre was adamant in following the doctor's orders regarding getting their guest comfortable.

After a lengthy argument, it was decided that the Captain Lowe would be better left in one of the individual cabin on which door a lock would be kept at all time. There was only four of those as the four Arabs were sharing quarters, as were O and Hernan and Gene and Howard. Wufei's room would have been the best as it was the smallest one, not much more than a closet really --it might even have been one at some point-- but there was no way of convincing him to relent his chosen Spartan quarters. Meiran's cabin was an obvious choice as she wouldn't be occupying it for a while but once again Wufei protested, incensed that they would even suggest to let a stranger invade the girl's privacy. In the end, the Chinese man gave his grudging approval about Quatre moving in Meiran's cabin while the captive was put in the Prince's room. Duo and Quatre would have preferred another solution as that arrangement seemed to be confirmation enough for Wufei in ascertaining that Quatre and Meiran were an item. They would have to apologize to the irate Chinese girl when she learned about that particular misunderstanding.

Once everyone had been sorted out, that Quatre's cabin had been emptied of all weapons and the Captain Lowe dumped on the Prince's bed and locked away, it was time to inform Wufei of their planned investigation. In spite of his lack of sleep and his present resentment toward his Captain, the Chinese man offered to help them right away. It was clear that he would do anything in order to get rid of the curse responsible for landing Meiran in an hospital bed. He also appeared intrigued by the strange meeting his friends had interrupted last night. They had anticipated this reaction as there was no love lost between him and Kushrenada who had beaten him in a duel a few years back when they had attacked a slave ship he was on board of.

At the time, Wufei had been horrified by the conditions in which the slaves were transported and outraged when the aristocratic redhead had dared to affirm in a haughty voice that such animals deserved no better. Wufei had provoked the man in a duel and had lost. His defeat could be excused by his rage and inexperience but he hadn't seen it like that of course. Feeling dishonoured, he had almost let Kushrenada kill him. Fortunately, Deathscythe's entire crew had been present and Shinigami wouldn't let one of his own die for such a stupid reason as a bruised honour. He had rescued Wufei and sent the victor on a rowboat with the rest of the slave ship's crew. They had then freed the slaves and lead the ship to Jamaica where they had let them all go to hopefully make a new life and stay free, even if they were far away from their native Africa. Wufei had felt better after their good deed but had kept a burning hatred toward Kushrenada ever since. He had never really overcome the shame of his defeat either and had trained all the harder in the hope of one day getting his just revenge.

It was thus with enthusiasm that Wufei shared ideas with his friends on how to proceed to conduce both investigations with all due diligence. Contrary to Quatre, he agreed immediately when Duo suggested once again to go see Hilde. The Prince failed to convince them on how bad an idea it was and had to concede the validity of their point in the end. No matter if the girl had a grudge against their Captain and if asking her for help could very well turn against them, her information was always too valuable to oversee. It wasn't yet noon when the three pirates left the Sandrock to travel the streets of Port Royal. Schbeiker's Shipwreck was on the far end of town on the docks and was to date the biggest and most reputed place to get a ship made or repaired in the Caribbean.

Dietrich Schbeiker and Howard had been pals when they were young and the rumour was that they had served together in an army somewhere in Europe. The German man had moved to Jamaica around the same time as Howard and neither liked to talk about what had happened to push them to that exile. However, there was little doubt that they were wanted for one crime or another, but as it was the case for most people in Port Royal, nobody cared. Dietrich had had a hand in the original design of the Deathscythe but had never been trusted enough to the final plans: the man was too much of a gossip to entrust Shinigami's secrets to. As nosy as he could prove to be, the man was also incredibly talented when it came to boat construction and Schbeiker's Wreck had been in business for almost as long as he had lived in Port Royal.

Somewhere along the way and in spite of nobody remembering ever seeing him with a woman, the old Dietrich got himself a daughter. As the man had no other heir and because he was raising the little girl alone, Hilde fast became a fixed feature around the Shipwreck. She was a real tomboy and promised early on to become almost as talented as her father, so much that people often forgot that she was a girl and didn't give her too much grief. She was widely known, well liked and even nosier than her old man. When she got to be sixteen everyone in Port Royal already knew that when you needed to get dirt about someone, she was the one you had to ask.

A few years back, the barely twenty years old Hilde wasn't anymore innocent than most other gals in Port Royal and as tomboyish as she looked, she had already tried and tested her feminine wiles on many an occasion. Dietrich had long given up on her ever being the proper lady and had washed his hands of the whole business; Hilde was far too stubborn to bother. That was when she fell in love with Duo Maxwell who was a regular customer she had just designed a strange demonic figurehead for. She had little trouble seducing him in her bed but realized very soon that keeping him there would be another matter entirely. They had an on and off relationship for the better part of two years. That had been Shinigami's longest lasting relationship and he'd even been faithful for the most part, but Duo's commitment was still not enough for the passionate girl and their arguments soon began infamous. A little before the two years' mark Hilde decided she had had enough grief and threw him out of the Shipwreck with dire threats in the eventuality he dared show his face again. He had taken her advice at heart and stayed away until then.

Now, a little over a year after their break-up, he was back for the first time and even if it was for a good cause, he wasn't all that comfortable being there. Wufei and Quatre were flanking him as usual but Duo had no delusion that they would come to the rescue if Hilde hadn't yet had time enough to cool off. His friends always made it a point not to interfere in his private affairs --well... save for when he was stupid enough to bang the Governor's daughter. On the way to Dietrich's office where Hilde could usually be found around lunchtime, the few Shipwreck's employees they met saluted them amiably, but they all looked at Duo with the pity one awarded a man condemned to the gallows. That wasn't all that reassuring even less when Quatre was worrying his lip between nervous teeth and Wufei was brimming with the anticipation to see his Captain receive his deserved punishment for whatever imagined offence.

When Duo pushed the door to the office at last, he felt like he really was ascending the stairs leading to the pillory. Bravely, he shook himself from all fears, took a deep breath and entered the large study room , Quatre and Wufei following suit. When questioned later, Duo would not be able to explain how he had known to duck but it definitely saved his life because the axe that came to stick in the wall behind him had been perfectly aimed and very very sharp. It was also fortunate that Wufei had the reflex to push Quatre aside or the Prince would have been the one with the split open head once Duo had ducked. Hilde would have been awfully embarrassed as she had always liked Quatre. In the end, there were all alive and whole but it sure had been a close call. Shinigami, always the first to recover, couldn't help but to taunt the short-haired woman who was seething behind her desk.

"Hildie! I think you "missed" me!"

There were two groans behind the cheeky pirate and an outraged shriek from the German girl. This time, Duo could easily explain that he knew to duck because he had been expecting the second projectile. He was still sad to see to globe he had offered Hilde after she complained that she didn't know the world outside of Jamaica, crash against the wall. That had such a touch of finality, it was heart-breaking; whatever their relations would be like from now on, it was clear that there wouldn't be any make-up sex. More's the pity!