Rating/Warnings: PG, some swearing

Summary: Steampunk AU. A young cowboy, down on his luck, Duo Maxwell is shanghaied by the airship The Dutchman. Between getting along with grumpy fellow slave Heero, and surviving attacks from airpirates, his life just got a lot more interesting.

Notes: Written for the 2010 Moments of Rapture fic contest. Not to be reposted without permission. Two words you will need to know: the envelope is the balloon part of a blimp or dirigible, the gondola is the boat part where the people go.

Shanghaied
by Grevola

My story? You sure? It's plenty long and there's not that many high points. Well all right, if you're buying the drinks.

I'm Duo, Duo Maxwell. First thing you've gotta know about me is I'm just the luckiest son of a gun to ever walk on God's green Earth. The trick is remembering there are two kinds of luck, and I mostly get the other kind. Which is not to say I haven't had a few moments of good fortune, but they're usually tempered with some pretty bad luck too. Take the big Chicago fire about ten years back. I was there when it started -- oh boy was I there when it started -- and I escaped without so much as a singed eyebrow. Unfortunately half the city burned down, including an orphanage that had sort of been taking care of me at the time, and I was left broke and homeless at the tender age of ten.

A toast to the orphanage? A fine idea! To Sister Helen, Father Maxwell and all the little demons, God bless 'em every one!

What'd I do after that? Well the next couple of years were mostly spent hanging around the cattle market, picking up spare jobs and playing down by the train yards. When I was big enough, I got myself hired on by some cowboys who were in the business of driving herds up to Chicago from as far as Texas. Things seemed pretty good until I was about eighteen and a plague went through the cattle and left us with just about nothing. I tried my hand at working on the rail lines after that. Shoveled some coal, served hoity-toity passengers in the dining car, and took a wrench to things when they needed it. Not a bad job for a year or two, but you get bored living in a tiny metal box even if the scenery out the window is always changing. Decided I'd try my hand at gold digging out near San Francisco.

Here's to chasing fairy gold! Since I'm not wearing a nice suit and smoking a cigar you can guess how well that turned out.

I wound up working a few less than reputable jobs before some slick offered me money to go north to Oregon territory and run some cattle for him. Just a short trip, a few hundred miles, nothing at all to an experienced cowhand like me. More the fool's me, I took him up on it.

Rode north on a nice little steam train, got over the mountains and into the territory without trouble. Then I found out I wasn't just riding a herd, I was supposed to get the damn thing together. He wanted a hundred head of cattle moved north, and I don't know that there were fifty of the damn beasts in the whole county. By the time I'd begged, borrowed or stole all the cows I ever wanted to see again, I didn't have near enough time to get them up to the city for sale. The boss wasn't pleased, but I think he was over a barrel himself because he paid to have the cows run up river on a steam barge.

To the Willamette and all her barges! I'm liking your toasts, my friend.

Would have been quite a nice ride, if it didn't smell like nervous livestock and if the steam wheel didn't throw a gear half-way north. I got the damn thing running again right quick, because damn if I wasn't sick of the whole sorry mess, and you know what I got for my trouble? A kick in the ribs and a dock of pay! He said he'd hired me to be the cowboy, not the mechanic, and if I was up to my ass, pardon me, in a steam engine there's no way I was tending the heard. Like cows need a lot of attention when they're standing in a damn pen!

So that's what brings me here. We finally hit the dock today, I got the damn bovines off my hands and collected half my pay. Figured I'd spend the last of it on a nice drink and maybe some company before I start looking for more work.

A little woman back home? Me? You've gotta be joking. Nah, no one's waiting on me. Another drink? You're still buying? Don't mind if I do sir, don't mind if I do.

Woo, that's a strong one. House special you say? I'll have another, if you're on the tab. Woah, maybe better not. Got a bit dizzy there. You got a twin brother? You sure? I swear I saw two of you. Now who's turned the gas lamps down? A man can hardly see his drink in here...

Heero Yuy, coal fire attendant and boiler slave on the smuggler airship The Dutchman, sat cross legged on the narrow strip of corridor that ran alongside his bunk. He'd just pulled a triple shift doing the two man job of getting the ship launched without the benefit of any help. Now all he wanted was to sleep, but his bunk was occupied by the ship's newest crew member. The poor idiot Howard had bought off the crimp was too tall for the short bunk space, and he seemed to be curled up uncomfortably on his side. He wondered if their new addition used to be a cowboy -- he wore a wrinkled wool shirt and a pair of gold digger denims under his flight harness. His boots were pointed and scuffed. The part of Heero not occupied with waiting impatiently for the knockout drugs to wear off wondered where the other man's hat had gotten to. Or if he even bothered with one, as he had thick braid of hair all the way down his back like an Indian. Maybe he was an Indian at that, Howard had said he got the man from old Bunko after all.

The braided man made a low, gravelly sound and tried to roll onto his back. His harness clanked as he ran into the wall instead. Heero leaned over him to get a better look, "Are you going to throw up?"

The man's eyes flew open and he sat up abruptly. The sudden shift from groaning to upright caught Heero completely by surprise, and their heads knocked together with a loud crack. Heero swore and sat back quickly. He rubbed at his forehead where a knot was certainly coming up. The new man lay back down, one hand clasped to the bridge of his nose, and his lips pressed together so hard they went white. After a long moment he spoke in a calm steady voice, "I will perform the sexual act of his choice for any man that brings me painkillers in the next ten seconds."

Heero found his eyes drawn almost magnetically to the other man, stunned by the sudden declaration. There was a sound of laughter from the hallway, "Well Heero, if you have some aspirin, it looks like your lucky day."

Heero glared at the Chinese man standing in the doorway. He'd worked with Wufei on the ship for several years, and generally got along with his crewmate, but Heero wasn't overly fond of his sometimes sadistic sense of humor. "You said he can't have any painkillers until the knockout drops are out of his system."

"Knockout drops?" The prone man asked.

"I'm afraid so," Wufei said, "For some reason our Captain Howard didn't think you'd be interested in our company otherwise. Something about damn fool mechanics always wanting to get paid."

The braided man slowly and gingerly nodded his head, "Yeah, we like that. So I'm on some kind of boat?"

"You're on the private airship The Dutchman," Heero growled, "and you're laying in my bunk."

"Your bunk?" the new man said, cracking an eye to take a good luck at Heero. "Did you at least buy me dinner before you drugged me and hauled me back to your bed?"

"Don't be an idiot!" Heero snapped.

Slowly the cowboy sat up and took a careful look around himself. Finally his eyes rested on Wufei standing in the doorway, "I've been shanghaied, haven't I?" he asked.

"Singapored, actually," Wufei said, "But I expect you'll have time to learn the difference on the voyage out."

"How lucky for me."

Twenty minutes later the young man had been introduced as Duo Maxwell, a jack of all trades and sometimes-mechanic who'd had the misfortune of choosing a bad drinking buddy. Heero listened to his story as long as he could, before he had finally lost patience, and bodily hauled the man out of his bed. Wufei had been kind enough at that point to help the cowboy stagger his way to the mess table where he sprawled on one of the benches. "What the hell did they give me anyway?" he asked.

Wufei shrugged, "Well, you aren't convinced we're riding a flying dragon, so it probably wasn't opium. More's the pity for you, your head would hurt less."

"Har har," Duo snarled, "I think my head hurts from smacking it on Heero's thick skull. Is he always so pleasant?"

"Oh no," Wufei said, "normally he's much worse. He must like you."

Duo gave him a long look that spoke of little patience and less humor.

"Or he could just be concussed from when you knocked heads."

"Now isn't that a lovely thought," Duo drawled. "So what do I have to do to get this ever fashionable leather harness off myself so I can get a bath?"

Wufei made a noise between a chuckle and a snort, "I'm afraid you'll find the harness is not removable. If you'd like a bath on the other hand, I believe the rain barrel is full and your shirt will make a fine wash cloth."

Duo frowned and examined the harness he'd been fitted into more closely. Leather straps crossed over his shoulders to attach to a belt at his waist, and thin metal chains swung between his legs. There was enough give in the setup that he could move freely, and probably even manage his pants enough to take care of natural duties, but there was no way he could get the harness off without first undoing the padlock that had been fastened in the middle of his back. Attached to the same ring as the lock was another chain, about eight feet long, and while it wasn't overly bulky, it wasn't light either. It attached to a metal disc set in a slot on the wall of the ship. The slots, he'd noticed, ran along all the walls and even out some of the windows. The setup meant that someone chained to a disc would be able to go to any room, and even outside the ship, without ever being untied from The Dutchman. There were even interesting interchanges that looked like a miniature version of a sidetrack to allow two trains to pass.

Any other day, Duo might have been more angry about being literally tied to the airship. And if he hadn't been angry about that, he would have admired the clever setup for the harnesses and chains. Care had clearly been taken to prevent an escape or a fall without inhibiting mobility or getting the chains in the way of the crew. But none of that really mattered to Duo on that first morning because his head was pounding too hard.

Wufei brewed some foul smelling herbal remedy and then left him to wallow in his own misery for an hour or so. If he had known what the Captain had planed for him, the former cowboy might have made more of an effort to enjoy his brief respite, or at least the view from the small dining area window. Instead Duo spent the hour with his head on the table wishing he'd never woken up that morning.

He was still contemplating his amazing run of bad luck when Captain Howard finally arrived to greet his newest crew member. "So you're finally up and moving, eh kid?"

"I hate you," Duo muttered into his arm.

"Ah, come on. I haven't even done anything yet," the old man said, "give me a chance to earn it."

"This your ship?"

"Indeed she is."

"And is this harness your idea of a joke?"

The old man chuckled, "Only the very worst kind."

Duo finally raised his head enough to fix blood shot blue eyes on the scruffy old man, "Then I hate you."

Captain Howard did not seem phased at all by his uncooperative new crewman, "Well, if you've got the energy to hate me, you've got the energy to get to work. Step along, I'll show you your new berth."

Reluctantly Duo followed along after the old man. He wore a leather vest over a shirt made of patches of brightly colored fabric and his goggles had smoked glass. He noticed that they seemed to be retracing the route Wufei had taken him on earlier, and Duo found himself wondering what the other doors on the main hallway opened up to. Finally they were standing outside the corridor of the bunk where he had woken up. There was no door to the hall way, and Heero hadn't bothered to pull the curtains when he laid down so Duo could see the other man was still sleeping in the recessed bunk. Now that he was on his feet and more aware, he could see that there was an empty hammock strung across the opening about four feet off the ground. He had a sinking feeling that was going to be his new bed.

"You've met Heero it looks like," Howard said. "He's got the only bed space that's not swinging from the rafters so it doubles as a sick bed if a crewman gets laid up. You sleep second shift and him on first, so you can share the bunk or take the hammock. I don't much care but sort it out without any black eyes."

"I'm bunking here?" Duo asked skeptically.

"Yup, you've got to be close to the boiler."

Now Howard led him down the narrow hallway, past where Heero was nothing more than a shaggy mop of brown hair poking out from a ratty blue blanket. At first Duo had thought the hall was going to tee, but instead there was a tight gap on the right that opened up to the boiler room. It was hot there, with a coal fire burning in the stove at the end of the room. Two large boilers, and an array of pipes against the wall confirmed that the stove provided steam power to the rest of the airship.

"You'll be working in here, keeping an eye on the dials and the lever boxes," Howard gestured to another wall where pistons and lever arms shifted position rapidly in response to the steam drives and remote commands from the pilot's chair. Working on those mid-flight would be risking losing a finger or worse, but the alternative was a short sharp plunge into the waters off the Pacific coast. Or at least that was the impression he got from Howard after a brief lesson on airship maintenance.

"You really expect that after you kidnap me, refuse to pay me, and chain me to your ship that I'm going to risk fingers on it for you?" Duo asked.

The old man shrugged, "Well, if you ever want to eat, or leave the boiler room for that matter, you'll at least try to behave. Besides, I've got your signature on a nice contract that says you agreed to work for food and passage."

"Forgery!" Duo hissed.

"Says you," Howard said, "But the respectable Mr. Kelly, "Bunko" to his friends, says he saw you sign the papers himself. It's your word against his, in his city, which you'll have to get back to first."

Duo snarled and wound some of his chain around his fist in a threatening manner. He'd learned a lot about fighting in the Chicago docks yards where he grew up, and none of it was clean. "Fat lot of good those rags will do you if I sink this ship."

Howard just laughed, "Idle threats boy, idle threats. You can't get at the ship's envelope from here. There's nothing flammable except yourself , and if you mess with the steering too much my pilot will come down and throw you overboard himself."

Duo growled in frustration and kicked the wall, "Damnit!"

The old man just smiled, "Or you can learn to pull your weight, earn some privileges, and maybe even get some shore leave someday." He put his hands in his vest pockets and walked back through the sleeping hall to where it met with the main corridor running the length of the gondola. Duo followed as far as the port to the boiler room, and watched as the other man adjusted a small box at the end of the hallway.

Whatever it was made a clanging noise as he shifted it around. Heero stirred in response, made some noises that sounded like swearing, and pulled the curtain over the alcove shut.

Duo walked quietly to the end of the hall, wincing when his chain clinked loudly behind him. Then he knelt down to get eye level with the part of the wall Howard had messed with, "What have we here?"

Part of the tracks that the chains fitted into had been shifted ninety degrees, like a turntable for a rail car. He pushed at the rails a bit, but it was clear he would need some kind of special tool to rotate the track back. The reality of the situation finally begin to sink in past the lingering headache and the fog of anger and frustration. He, Duo Maxwell, first class cowboy and sometimes mechanic, was now well and truly trapped on The Dutchman.

Duo was limited to exploring the narrow corridor with the bunk nook, and the boiler room. Since Heero had drawn the curtain, and watching him sleep would be dull anyway, that left only one place to go. He made his way back to the boiler room and began poking around for anything that might aid in his escape. He discovered a chest with several tools (mostly wrenches and a single rubber mallet), and a semi-recessed coal bin to feed the stove, but nothing seemed directly useful to his problem. Possibly he could bludgeon someone with one of the wrenches but that wasn't likely to do more than get him stuck in the boiler room with a bunch of bodies.

If he knew more about smithing, he thought he might be able to melt, or at least destroy his chains in the coal stove. On the other hand, he was just as likely to wind up with a tail of red hot metal bolted to his body. He had helped with branding cattle a time or two, and he was in no way eager to try it out on himself.

He was surprised by how clean the room had been kept. Even the coal bin had only the lightest layer of black dust around it. The boiler itself was a huge curve of copper and glass that shown in the lamp light. The pipes were a nightmarish mess, but each one was shiny without excess grease or visible rust. The dials, valves and levers of the setup were all polished to gleaming, and Duo found himself wondering if he had been kidnapped to fix things, or to shine the metalwork. The whole system had been as meticulously designed as it was cared for, with each lever and nob carefully labeled so their corresponding mechanism could be easily deduced.

Finally, he discovered a ring on the wall that, when pulled, dropped a panel down to make a sort of jump seat along the wall opposite the coal bin. The seat was the least well kept thing he had seen on the ship. It had a thin, hard cushion with a few soot stains and what looked like some charred holes here and there. Duo glanced back at the coal fire and imagined it sparking. Then he closed the grate.

Having exhausted anything to do for the moment, he settled on the seat and tried to get comfortable. While the chain attached to his harness didn't immediately get in the way, the place where it was bolted on was hard and lumpy against his back. He soon realized that he would have to forgo reclining in chairs or sleeping on his back until he could get the damn thing removed.

He had just turned himself to sit sideways on the seat and leaned his head against one of the walls when he was startled by a voice right by his ear.

"More power to the starboard wings."

"What?!" Duo looked about quickly, but he was still apparently alone in the boiler room.

"Didn't you feel the wind shift?" The impatient voice continued. It had a hollow and slightly echo-y quality that made it seem not entirely human, "More power to starboard."

At this point Duo was able to identify the origin of the voice as a small funnel like hole, set in the wall next to the jump seat at about ear height. Next to it was a cabinet that Duo hadn't bothered opening yet because it seemed too small to house anything interesting. Below it was a circle of fine mesh. Now that he heard a voice from the funel, he suspected the whole thing to be part of a speaking tube setup.

"And just how the hell does one give more power to starboard?!" Duo yelled into the mesh circle, "I'm not a magician."

There was a pause on the other end, and then the voice said "Where the hell is Heero?" but it didn't sound like he was addressing the speaking tube this time.

Duo didn't much care if the question were rhetorical or not, "If you mean the grouchy guy sleeping in my bunk, then he's working on some much needed beauty rest."

There was a clanking sound from the tube, and when the voice returned it was fainter, and coming from the hallway rather than the speaking tube, "Get your ass out of bed you lazy good for nothing asshole! Unless you want to go swimming in the Sound, I need power to starboard now!"

As clear as the voice carried down the hall, Duo could only wince and guess he must have been bellowing into the tube on the other end. There was a thump, a rustle, and some indistinct swearing that he was coming to associate with his new bunkmate. The cursing quickly resolved itself into something clearly enunciated in a tone intended to carry with out excessive volume, "Trowa, I will kill you."

"You'll have to earn above stairs privileges first, and you're not getting those if I have to land in that pirate hole."

There was another banging sound, then Heero came storming around the corner and into the engine room. He didn't even acknowledge Duo though his face was clearly furious. For his own part, the braided man was surprised by the sudden entrance, but he was not about to be bullied or ignored. Instead, he leaned back against the wall and set his hands behind his head. With a great effort he managed to make his posture look comfortable and relaxed despite the hard metal digging into his spine.

Heero's eyes caught the movement and focused on him for a second before narrowing. Then he turned his attention back to the coal stove. With quick short movements, he scooped a careful amount of coal onto the shovel, and set it into the fire where it would heat according to the dark man's meticulous design.

The warm glow from the stove cast a red tint on his face and arms. It cast his muscles in sharp relief as he shoveled the coal and leaned over the stove. There was something almost artistic about the scene -- the muscled back backlit by hard labor and the hungry red of a coal fire. The setup provided Duo his first opportunity to examine his crewmate without causing offense. Below his heavy eyebrows, Heero's eyes were slanted and black in the odd light. His cheekbones cast sharp shadows, and his mouth seemed almost too full for a man. But even the exotic structure couldn't distract from the utter exhaustion Duo saw. Heero had dark bruises under his eyes, and a tightness at the corners of his mouth. His meticulous movements carried a frayed edge, and if he wasn't swaying on his feet it must have been because of conscious effort.

With shaking hands, the boiler slave adjusted a valve on a pipe over the stove, bringing the arrow on the relevant gauge out of the red region it had been flirting with. He adjusted two other valves, then carefully swept up the coal dust and tapped it into the stove before turning back to Duo.

As he moved toward him, and into a circle of yellow light from one of the oil lamps, Heero's features seemed to smooth from the stark exoticism of a moment before, and his eyes revealed themselves to be blue. But they were no less sharp or judgemental in their gaze.

"Are you stupid?" Heero asked.

Duo crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway, "Not particularly."

"Then you can fly?"

"Maybe the question should be are you stupid?"

The flippant comment seemed to be more than Heero could handle at that moment. He fisted a hand in Duo's shirt, and pinned the other man against the wall. "If you're not stupid then you should understand this. Learn to take orders or learn to walk on air."

He released his grip and the stunned cowboy found himself sitting on the floor and looking up at the shorter man. He glared as the other boiler slave stepped through the hatch, "I didn't sign up for this, Heero! And if you think I'm going to do a damn thing to help you shanghai-ing assholes you can shove it where the sun don't shine and the rain don't fall."

There was a stiffening of broad shoulders, but Heero didn't turn around, and a few moments later Duo heard the rattle of the bunk curtain being drawn.

The next day passed in silence. Heero spent their joint shift standing next to the coal fire, leaning on the shovel and carefully monitoring the gauges. Occasionally there would be an order from the speaking tube, then he would move quickly to comply before going back to standing like a guard statue over the coal fire. Duo spent the time in the jumpseat, watching quietly. During his solo shift he was relieved that there were no complicated orders, though the ship seemed to be buffeted a bit as the coal fire burnt down toward the end of the shift.

He was just contemplating how likely he was to get his arm broken for throwing a shovel load of new fuel in the stove when the bell signaling the end of shift rang. There was a thump and the swearing that he was coming to associate with Heero being woken up. It was followed shortly by his bunkmate appearing in the door way with his shirt off and his hair standing up in all directions. Without the dark green wrapped shirt he'd worn before, Duo could see that Heero was wearing a locked flight harness much like his own. The implication that they were both stuck there, stuck in the boiler room and stuck with the ship, was more than slightly uncomfortable.

And as he watched Heero's well developed muscles shift as he shoveled coal to build up the fire, he had to wonder how someone so evidently strong had gotten shanghaied or enslaved in the first place. The coal fire again brought out the striking exoticism of his features, and Duo found himself wondering if the other man had some tribal blood. It would explain the mix of sharpness and softness of his face, and perhaps even the slavery. Heero wouldn't be the first Indian he'd seen pushed into feeding a coal fire for a white man's comfort.

For his own part Heero was oblivious to the scrutiny from his crewmate, and feeling much refreshed after a full shift's sleep. But waking to a low coal fire wasn't how he'd imagined his day, which left him feeling frustrated at the other man's apparent uselessness.

"Did you have to let the fire get so low?" he asked.

Duo shrugged, "I figured Trowa'd start bitching if it got too low."

"It shouldn't ever be that cool even if we're landing," Heero said. "Quatre must be distracting him."

"You mean there's someone on board who can distract that workaholic?"

Heero grunted as he hefted another shovel load of fuel, "Trowa has a thing for blonds."

A laugh bubbled up out of Duo's belly and burst out unexpectedly. Something about the joke seemed to break the ice between them. Heero wasn't being a grumpy asshole, so Duo felt he could do better than being an indolent cowboy.

"Here," he said, "give me the shovel for a bit."

Heero arched an eyebrow, but relinquished the tool, "I thought you were going to shove your help where the sun doesn't shine?"

Duo shrugged as he started moving the coal, "I can do that too. But I thought you wanted this coal moved more."

"You're not still angry about the shanghai?"

The braided man stopped and leaned on the shovel, "I am. But I know it wasn't your fault. And if it hadn't been me it might have been some poor sap with a family or something. At least I didn't leave anyone behind missing me."

"Hm," Heero made a sound of agreement and moved to stoke the bellows to one side of the coal stove.

They were just settling into a routine when it was interrupted by the sound of a sharp whistle from the speaking tube.

Trowa's voice echoed down the pipes, "Where the hell is my steam, Heero?"

"Duo doesn't know how to tend a coal fire," Heero called back, hedging for his crewmate.

"Well you can know the Capitan says you teach that boy to pull his weight, or you do his job yourself."

Heero visibly paled under the lamplight, "Masa -- That's impossible! It's a two man job since Trant fixed things. Capitan Howard knows this."

"Well, he also knows about you maiming the last two mechanics, so you'd better hope your new playmate is a quick learner."

Heero turned to watch Duo's face, but the cowboy's expression had grown suddenly shuttered. His shoulders tensed, and he shoveled the rest of the coal in a stiff and businesslike manner. The brief moment of camaraderie was gone, and even with the building heat from the stove, the boiler room seemed chilly to Heero.

At last they had stabilized the coal fire, and there was a loud bang from the corridor that signaled Wufei arriving with food. Duo's stomach chose that moment to grumble. Heero gestured to the passage, "Go on, I'll clean up here."

Duo handed him the shovel, and quickly wiped his hands with a damped rag. Heero watched him go and tried not to sigh. He didn't blame the other man for being angry or frustrated by his new situation, but he had briefly hoped they could at least get along. Once he had gotten some rest, Heero didn't resent the new face. In fact he was grateful for the help, and hopeful that the other man would be good company. Now even a tepid friendship seemed out of the question.

Duo was in a foul mood when he grudgingly took the bowl of stew from Wufei. He poked a piece of meat with one finger before he fixed his eyes on the other man. "What happened to the last two mechanics?"

Wufei had been braced to explain what kind of meat was in the stew, or even to describe the method of making broth from bone marrow, but he hadn't expected a question on the crew's history. "Has Heero said something?" he asked.

The braided man shook his head, "Trowa mentioned maiming. My luck's been shitty lately and I'm wondering if there's something I should know."

Wufei nodded slowly, "You should ask Heero."

"Somehow I doubt it's going to be that easy."

"I agree," he said, "and so that we're clear, if you pester him about it I will break your arm."

Duo opened his mouth to tell the Chinese man exactly what he thought of that answer, but Heero chose that moment to step into the corridor and the quiet conversation died. Cautiously, the dark haired man reached past Duo to take the bowl of rice and the chopsticks from the ship's cook.

"I'll be up for another hour or two," Wufei said to Heero, "call me if you need anything." And then he turned and walked back up the hallway and vanished around a turn.

Heero moved quietly back down the hallway and settled himself on the floor next to the bunk. Duo sat down on the edge of the bedding and placed the bowl of pallid soup on the floor between them.

"You're angry again," Heero said.

"Could be," Duo agreed. He fished a bit of something that looked like potato out of the broth and made a face as he tasted it.

"Will you tell me why?"

"Will you tell me why you maimed the last two mechanics?"

Heero's eyes narrowed, "If you behave yourself, you won't have to find out."

Duo eyed the other man critically, sizing him up for a fight. While the cowboy had a longer reach, and maybe quicker feet, neither of those advantages counted for much in the small boiler room. Heero was compact, with tireless muscles and tremendous upper body strength. He'd also been in his harness longer, and wasn't likely to get tangled in the chain. If it came down to fisticuffs, Duo had no illusions about who would limp away the sorrier.

"I thought we were past the threats to get me to work."

Heero rubbed at his suddenly tired eyes, "I had hoped so too."

They ate in an awkward silence. Heero using the chopsticks to deftly ferry food from the bowls to his mouth. Duo had made one half-hearted attempt to use the sticks during his first meal, and quickly given up. He carefully snatched up bits of food from the broth and clumps of rice with his bare fingers. The soup that day was bland, slimy and colorless, so he picked half heartedly at the food.

Finally, after a particularly soggy bit of vegetable, he stuck his tongue out and leaned back against the wall, "Okay, I give up."

"This is the only food we will get until the shift changes," Heero reminded him.

"No, this is pig slop. When they bring food I'll eat it."

One corner of Heero's mouth twitched, "They say there are starving children in Shanghai would would love a good bowl of marrow broth and vegetables."

"There are starving kids in Chicago too," Duo snorted, "But they'd raid the offal bins at the cattle yards before they ate this stuff."

Heero fished out another bit of potato and ate it, "It is rather bland, isn't it?"

"And slimy. Don't forget slimy. I've met gelatins with more texture."

"Hn, probably," he agreed, "But don't let Wufei hear you say that, he's sensitive enough about his cooking."

"Wufei?" Duo raised an eyebrow, "you're joking."

"Who else did you think was preparing Chinese food for us?"

"This is Chinese food? I'm going to starve!"

Heero smirked, "At least he is not feeding us Japanese food."

"I don't see how it could be worse," Duo grumbled.

"It could," Heero said, "they eat raw fish."

Duo laughed at that, "I've heard some tall tales in my day, but that's a good one! Raw fish!"

"It's really quite good," Heero said, but the corner of his mouth had turned up.

"Ha, nice try. Like I'm going to believe that crazy foreigners eat that, much less you."

"But I am a crazy foreigner," Heero said, "I was born in Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu."

"Is that near Florida?" Duo asked.

Heero gave him a long look, "It's part of Japan."

Duo blinked at him, "No way! I thought you were Indian or something."

"I do not believe that I look much like a man from India."

"Not Indian-Indian." Duo said, "Indian. Like Cherokee or Black Foot."

"I promise I am not an American Indian," Heero said. "I thought you were, at least some. Isn't that why you have the long hair?"

Duo flicked his braid over his shoulder absently, "I might be, I don't actually know. There was a Cherokee guy on one of the cattle runs who used to call me 'Mipikam-gud'."

"And what does that mean?"

"It's a fake-Indian word that means 'the man with bad luck and worse judgement'."

"Ah, we say 'baka'. It's a real-Japanese word that means 'idiot'."

Duo laughed at that, "Well, at least it's shorter."

It turned out to be fortunate that Duo had decided he was finished eating, because their conversation was abruptly interrupted by three short bursts of a klaxon. It was a new alarm, both deeper and louder than the bell that signaled a shift change. Duo jumped to his feet, but Heero was already on the move to the boiler room.

"What the hell is that?" Duo yelled over the noise, "Are we under attack?"

"That's the landing bell," Heero replied. He had unhooked the coal shovel, and was standing with his eyes fixed on the gauges. "Landing is tricky, we have to lower the temperature in the envelope, but keep even power to the sails and be ready if there are sudden gusts."

"And if we mess up?"

"Then they clean us off the rocks or we go up like a zeppelin," Heero shrugged.

Duo nodded, and wiped his hands on his shirttails, "I've shoveled for steam engines before. Just tell me what you need me to do."

Heero handed over the shovel, and told him to be ready to turn valves on command. Then he began carefully letting off steam in an orchestrated pattern. Duo used the shovel to spread the coal more evenly in the stove, then began carefully feeding the fire. At first everything seemed to be going smoothly. The two men worked in concert without getting in one another's way, and everything seemed to be reading fine.

Then there was a sharp whistle from the speaking tube, "Ease off the aft port wing line!"

"I just did that," Heero muttered, turning from the levers he had been timing.

"Is Mister Bossy-Bloomers going to yell at us the whole way down?" Duo grumbled.

Heero grunted and eyed the gauge in question before turning back to the tube, "Port-aft wing gauge is reading 124 -- level with Starboard-aft."

"Well you can tell that to my arms -- that wing is pulling hard! Kill the pressure." There was a tightness in the voice, difficult to detect with the metallic overtones of the speaking tube, but still very present.

Duo didn't wait for him to finish speaking before he had dropped the shovel and moved to examine the dial himself. "Shit, we've got a bad O-ring here, Heero, and" he hissed, "a very fast leak on the gauge connection." The leak wasn't enough to bleed steam from the pipe, and it was too wide to make a whistle over the normal noises of the boiler room, but it was big enough to compromise the accuracy of the pressure gauge.

"We have a bad gauge," Heero repeated for the speaking tube, "We're going to ease back manually."

"Roger that," Trowa called back.

"Easing back," Duo called, applying gentle pressure to the valve, but the wheel didn't budge an inch. He twisted harder, but the red metal wheel continued to sit where it was. He looked at it more closely, "Godsdamned mother-loving son of a mongrel cat!"

"What the hell?!" Heero called, but Duo was already elbows deep in a tool box, and yanking out a monkey wrench and taking it to the nut under the valve handle. "Damnit! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Damn thing is cross threaded," Duo bit back, carefully fitting the tool so he wouldn't bend the brass pipe, but he would still be able to adjust the valve from the nut.

"Trowa, get your arm out of the cable! He's letting the steam off with a goddamn spanner!"

"Shit!"

Once Duo had the wrench set in place, he tapped it gently with the handle of another tool, thus letting the valve open slowly and with control. "How are we doing?" he called.

"Ease off that much again," Trowa called. Duo tapped a few more times, "Hold." There was a breathless moment while they waited to see if it had been enough. "She's good."

Duo let out a sigh, and quickly threw some more coal into the stove. Heero was already moving around the other gauges, this time checking both their seating and their levels so there wouldn't be any more surprises.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" He growled as he moved past Duo to examine the quick fix he'd put in.

"Getting around a bad valve," Duo shrugged, "who the hell put that setup in -- the gauge and the wheel were installed wrong."

"The last mechanic," Heero said.

"Probably a good thing you ran him off then," Duo said, "if he couldn't install a stupid pressure regulation setup."

"Hn," was all Heero said to that.

The rest of the landing went fairly smoothly. Trowa called out when he needed pressure dropped on the bad connection, and Heero found another minor leak in the piping but it wasn't anything that would affect landing. Soon enough they felt the gondola shudder as the gangplank was attached and the land lines were tied down.

Duo banked the fire, and wiped his brow. He felt sticky and wet from head to foot, and rubbed raw where his harness had pressed against damp flannel and denim. Heero, shirtless and in simple cotton pants, looked much more comfortable. "Tomorrow, you're going to have to teach me your secret," Duo said.

"My secret?"

Duo nodded, "Yep, you're going to show me how to get my shirt off so I can at least wipe myself down to get some of the stink off."

"Tomorrow's Friday, we'll have to have a bath anyway."

Duo's eyes narrowed, "A bath? Are they going to let us out of these harnesses?"

Heero shrugged, "We're landed so they might. Then again, if Howard's worried you'll run off he probably won't."

"Then how the hell am I supposed to get a bath? It's hard enough getting my denim's down for normal business, much less a good wash!"

That had Heero smirking, "So you haven't figured out how to get your pants off with the harness on?"

"Oh, go on and laugh it up," Duo snorted, "You like running around practically naked."

"Does it bother you so much?" Heero asked.

Duo gave him a careful look, starting at his bare feet and working up over his strong legs, his broad chest, and ending with his messy dark hair, "Only in the way it makes me jealous."

"I make you jealous?" the Asian man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Duo said, unbuttoning his shirt as best he could around the leather straps, "I'm sweating like a stuck pig in this flannel."

Heero sighed but there was an amused edge to it. Before he could comment further, or offer to help cool the other man off, Wufei called his name from the hall. Both he and Duo stepped into the corridor where the Chinese man was gathering the remains of their abandoned dinner.

"Heero, come help unload the cargo. Captain Howard wants us to be loaded and lifting off by dawn."

The boiler slave stretched his shoulders, "What's the local time?"

"About six in the evening," Wufei answered.

Duo sighed, "And here I was hoping for a nap. Alright, let's get this over with."

Wufei looked at the other man then shook his head, "The Captain's orders are that you will be staying here. I suggest you get some rest, Heero will probably want to sleep before lift off."

"What?! I'm not even allowed in the stinking cargo bay?"

While Wufei and Duo were talking, Heero had been quickly tying on the long linen pants he wore over his harness when he knew he would be in the colder parts of the ship. He also wrapped himself in his heavy green jacket. The boiler room and the corridor would stay very warm as long as the coal stove was on, but the high altitudes kept the rest of the ship uncomfortably cold. And chances were slim that they'd landed somewhere sufficiently tropical he wouldn't want to be bundled up when he went to unload the cargo bay.

Heero tied the belt on his green jacket, then touched Duo gently on the arm, "Just try to get some rest. Take off will be harder than landing."

Duo sighed and glared at them both, "Well, then the least you can do is bring me some proper food when you come back. Meat and potatoes, you hear me? None of this rice and slime goop."

Wufei raised an eyebrow, but then he bowed sardonically to Duo, "I will see what can be arranged."

Then he did something unexpected. He didn't fuss with the wall tracks that kept Heero and Duo locked in their corridor, instead he took a key and unlocked the chain from the Japanese man's harness. Duo watched sullenly as they marched down the hallway and turned out of sight, then he looked back at the tussled bedding. Maybe if he hauled it all into the corridor, he'd be able to stretch out enough for a decent nap.

Heero found Duo sleeping in the middle of the corridor when he returned. The taller man had pulled the bedding out of the recess that served as a bunk, and then sprawled across the entire passageway. He took a moment to admire the long form of his sleeping companion. Since the first day when Duo had been drugged and stowed in his bed, he hadn't had much opportunity to watch the other man at rest.

Duo's long braid of hair glowed under the flattering lamplight and curled around his face where it had come undone. His cheeks were flushed, probably from the warmth of the adjacent boiler room, and Heero caught himself admiring the color on the high cheekbones. The wide straps of the harness seemed to hang off the lanky form in sleep, making his limbs seem even longer. The chain from the harness passed over his hips, drawing the eye to the way the denim trousers had molded themselves to Duo's form.

He didn't want to wake the cowboy and disturb the appealing image, but he had already lost most of a sleep shift to the landing. And Wufei had been kind enough to help him bring his fellow coal shoveler a small gift, so it would be terrible for it to go to waste.

"Ei, wake up," he called, nudging Duo's leg with one foot.

Duo grumbled something and pulled the blanket over his head.

"Wake up," Heero repeated, "Or I'll eat your dinner."

The top of Duo's bangs reappeared over the edge of the blanket, "Wufei cook?

Heero found himself chuckling, "No lazy, it's from an inn. Something with potatoes and meat."

That was enough to get Duo sitting up and shoving the bedding back onto the bunk. Heero settled down next to him on the floor and passed over one of the bowls he was carrying. Duo took up the bowl with an almost indecent grace, and began spooning the food into his mouth as though he were afraid it were going to be taken away. Heero ate his somewhat mechanically, never have gotten used to the rich gravy taste of American cooking.

"Man that's good," Duo sighed between bites.

"You look like you haven't eaten in a week," Heero said.

"I haven't," Duo said, "not like this anyway. I don't know how you guys get by on two meals of thin soup a day."

Heero considered making some comment about Duo carrying extra weight, but it was so evidently wrong that he didn't bother. Instead he said, "We're slaves Duo, you expect a catered dinner every night?"

Duo snorted, "That reminds me, you still owe me a dinner."

Heero blinked at him, "What for?"

"You guys, your captain and whoever, get me stinking drunk, take advantage of me, and I wake up tied up in your bed. Normally you buy a man dinner first, but you seem to have skipped that part."

"I brought you the potato food, didn't I?" Heero gestured to the bowl in Duo's hands.

"Do I see candlelight? Fine whiskey? At least a cute saloon girl whose bottom I could pinch?"

"There's lamp light, and I'll thank you not to pinch my bottom."

Duo made an expansive gesture, taking in the corridor and by extension the whole airship, "This is not a fine restaurant, Heero, it's not even a filthy saloon. That's what I mean by buying me a meal."

Heero gave Duo a measuring look, "So you're implying that anyone who buys you a meal in a filthy saloon can have you in their bed?"

"The rituals of courtship must be observed!" Duo laughed, "And I wouldn't bed just anyone. I'm a man with standards after all. Attractive diners only, please. Of course, you don't have any worries there, so I'll just take the dinner if it's all the same."

Heero shook his head and handed Duo the rest of his inedible stew, "You sell yourself very cheaply, if all you ask for is a dinner. I'm sure you could get diamonds."

At that, Duo gave him an odd look, before smirking every so slightly. "You're not the first man to tell me that," he said.

"Aa?"

Duo nodded, "There's a man in San Francisco, Don Sancho, who used to tell me I could win gold and diamonds. He runs a boarding house for young men of an, ehm, impressionable disposition," there was a waggle of eyebrows, "and I worked there for a couple of months."

"You worked in a brothel?" Heero found himself pulling away rather suddenly, shocked as much by Duo's rather upfront admission as by what he had said.

Duo just laughed, "Not like you're thinking. I made sure the gentlemen who stopped by didn't get rough with the boys." His expression turned sly again, "But I did learn a few things."

Heero let out a breath he hadn't realize he was holding, "Do I want to ask?"

"Oh, this and that mostly. Tips from the boys." His face looked like a devil of mischief, "And a lovely trick with those eating sticks of yours."

"Aa?" Heero swallowed roughly, "I thought you couldn't use hashi?"

"Mm-hm," Duo nodded and winked, "But the trick has nothing to do with eating."

Heero groaned, partially in response to Duo's excessively forward manner, and partially in response to to the flirting itself. "Finish eating and go check the stove," he said.

Duo grinned openly, clearly delighted to have gotten under his companion's skin, "Can't take a little teasing, Heero?"

"I can't take you sitting on my bed," he replied, "Unless you like working with me when I haven't slept for three shifts."

That had Duo laughing outright and he held up his hands in mock surrender, "Okay, okay, we don't want that. Get your beauty rest, I'll keep an eye on the stove."

"Hn, see to it," Heero said, but there was a quirk at the corner of his mouth as he watched the other man saunter down the corridor to the boiler room. 'He's going to drive me crazy,' he thought to himself, 'but at least he'll make it an entertaining trip'.

Duo, on the other hand, was considering his options with regards to Heero as he refreshed the coal in the stove and checked a couple of the gauges. He had a lot more of them now that he realized he could get a rise out of Heero by flirting with him. While Heero was clearly a boiler slave, he also just as clearly enjoyed certain privileges. That meant that Duo could finagle some advantages through playing nice with his bunkmate. He could maybe even manipulate Heero, see if he couldn't get the other man to help him break out of the harness and then escape at their next port of call. Duo fussed a bit with the faulty pressure gauge as he turned the idea over. The valve wasn't going anywhere for the moment, at least not without a replacement lined up. Much like Duo shouldn't be going anywhere until he had a new ship scoped out to take him home.

"So what happens if I stick around?" he asked himself. In the toolbox he found a smaller monkey wrench and an O-ring that would give him a nice way to jury rig the pressure gauge until they could get spare parts. Not ideal, but acceptable under the circumstances. 'Like courting Heero,' he thought to himself. 'If I stick this out, there's no reason he and I can't enjoy each other. And who knows? Maybe when I hit the road I can get him to tag along with me.'

The tall cowboy was feeling much better about the whole shanghai-ing. Of course, that Heero was exotically attractive didn't hurt matters a bit.

They were two days out from the last landing when disaster struck. The two days had been filled with a warm, comfortable routine and an easy sort of courtship. They kept on task when they were working, but the winds were favorable, and Captain Howard seemed to be in no rush to get their cargo to their next port of call, so there were many hours when they had nothing much to do. Duo quite enjoyed teasing Heero, though he'd learned quickly not to be physical or overly forward as that would make the other man clam up tightly. On the other hand he'd found that a little innuendo could go a long way to getting the exotic man's attention.

But it was the second day when The Dutchman's luck seemed to abruptly run out. The airship hit a patch of cold air that cost them a chunk of altitude and dropped them into unfavorable prevailing winds. The bulk of the burden this caused fell on Trowa's shoulders as the pilot, but it forced him to make more use of the steam powered propellers, and that meant a hotter fire in the coal stove. To build up enough heat to boil the largest of the boilers Heero and Duo had to stand and shovel side by side.

It was a testament to Trowa's piloting skills that when they hit the air pocket there was only a mild bump. They had enough time that Heero was also able to help Duo get himself out of his shirt, despite the annoyance of the harness, before the hot, backbreaking labor began in earnest. Duo was initially grateful to be free of the warm fabric, but his feelings slowly changed as the straps of the harness began to chafe and rub at his shoulders and sides.

"How did I let you talk me out of my shirt again?" He groused.

"How did I --?" Heero glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, "I thought you wanted me to be taking your shirt off."

Duo wiped his brow with a soot covered arm, smearing black across his face, "Yeah, maybe. But you didn't warn me about the damn harness rubbing. How are you not feeling like raw meat?"

Heero just shrugged, "I am well used to the harness."

"And if my shoulders blister?" Duo pouted.

"Then you can be sure they will callus," Heero said.

Duo chuckled weakly at that, "You know, there's hardly a difference between 'slave and salve'."

"You're point?"

"Maybe when this is all over you can have pity on your poor abused slave and rub some salve on his shoulders?" Duo said, sounding as falsely pathetic as he could muster so Heero would take the joke the right way.

His efforts paid off, and Heero chuckled even as he nudged him, "I hear alcohol and salt are good for tired muscles."

Duo gave an exaggerated wince, "Ouch, okay okay. Remind me to never ask you for help if I get injured."

"Well, if you're that delicate --" Heero began, but whatever he was going to say was cut off as the airship gave a suddenly lurch and Duo fell against him. Heero managed to steady himself in time to keep them both from falling into the stove, but he wasn't able to do much about the shower of sparks the jolt had kicked up. They both swore as they righted themselves and examined the small pink weals left by the hot embers.

"What was --?" Duo started to ask, but a warning klaxon sounded drowning anything else.

"Attack!" Heero hissed, "Keep the coal burning and stay out of trouble!" Then he was rushing off down the corridor and presumably into the middle of whatever it was had happened.

Duo secured half of the stove grate, lessening the chance of another spark shower, and checked the pressure gauges. Everything had stabilized, and the demands from the propellers had been lessened so he wouldn't be tied to throwing fuel into the stove. After a moment's thought he unlatched one of the tool cabinets and pulled out a mid-sized monkey wrench with a long handle. He hefted it a few times and decided he liked the weight of it. Then he settled in the jump seat, with his makeshift club across his knees, and listened for news from the speaking tube.

There was a banging sound, and then some shuffling noises, and then a voice Duo had never heard came faintly down the tube. The sound was faint, and he couldn't catch every word, but it was enough to give him some idea what was going on.

"-- you are. Howard is low on -- aren't hardly guarded --"

"Marquise," Trowa's voice echoed more clearly. Wherever he was, he was closer to the pick up for the sound tube.

"Where's Winner?" the Marquise asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Trowa said. There was a shifting noise, and Duo wondered if the pilot was getting ready to attack the intruder, or bracing to defend himself.

"Of course you do. Winner owns you and this whole ship," the Marquise voice grew stronger and more clear, indicating he was moving toward the mouth of the tube.

"This ship belongs to Capitan Howard, not anyone by the name of Winner, you know that."

"Don't play stupid with me," the Marquise snarled, and there was a rustling and a thumping noise and the whole ship seemed to lurch to one side. Duo rode out the sudden shudder and wondered why Trowa had let the intruder get so close to the flight controls. Then he wondered where the rest of the crew was.

"Zechs!" Now that was a familiar voice to Duo, though admittedly not one he had heard through the speaking tube. Wufei had arrived.

"How sweet that you remember me," the man said, "And I see you still have Heero following after you like a lost puppy."

Wufei said something that was indistinct, but Duo was less concerned with deciphering what was undoubtedly a string of insults than he was concerned about what would happen now that Heero was on the scene.

"It's three against two Marquise," that was Trowa's voice, "Put down your pistol and surrender."

There was a sound of gunfire, loud enough Duo heard the actual report at the same time as the metallic echo came through the speaking tube.

The pilot room erupted into several voices shouting at once in a mass of confusion. Duo realized his hand was aching, and looked down to find his knuckles bone white where he was gripping his impromptu club. Consciously he relaxed his grip on the weapon, but he didn't flinch from where he could hear the battle playing out. There was a new voice, higher in tone than the Marquise, but not clearly male or female, and Duo managed to work out that the intruder had some kind of accomplice with him.

Then there was a deep boom and another shudder from the ship. Then a new voice came over the speaking tube, this one so clear it must have been speaking directly into the system, "Check mate, Marquise. I have punctured the envelope of your aerostat. Drop your weapons and surrender."

There was a shuffling noise, and the higher voice of the Marquise's companion carried down the tube, "I have visual confirmation, sir. The Talgese is damaged."

"I still have your pilot," Marquise snarled.

"And I have the lives of your whole crew. Your remaining envelopes should be enough to land safely, provided you issue the order to descend in the next five minutes."

There was another bang, a lurch, and then the sound of boots running across the upper decks. Duo realized quickly that rather than make their way to whatever entry point they had used to board the ship, the intruders were hustling down the ladder and would be on the lower deck in moments. The mechanic grabbed his wrench and in four short strides had arrived at the end of his tether in the hallway. He could see the Marquise, a tall man with an embarrassment of blond hair spilling out from his flight cap. His companion was of indeterminate sex, and wore goggles perched on top of short dark hair. The Marquise steadied his companion's descent and turned. He looked right at Duo, and inasmuch as any expression could be seen, he seemed surprised. Then he saluted Duo with his pistol, and hustled his companion into the first door on the left hand side.

Suddenly frustrated, Duo threw his wrench after them, though he knew it wouldn't do any good. Just as the tool clanged sharply on the door frame Heero dropped down the ladder.

"First door on the left!" Duo shouted, pointing.

Heero wasted no time, and vanished after the Marquise. Duo waited anxiously, straining his ears to catch any signs of a struggle, but it was quiet and Heero returned shortly his hands empty except for the thrown wrench. He shook his head as he approached Duo, "They took a glider."

Duo took the wrench back when Heero offered him the tool, "Damnit!"

"I can't stay," Heero said, "We need to get out of here. Keep the fires hot, and do what Trowa says." And with that Heero had turned around and was making his way up the ladder again.

"Heero!" Duo called after him, but the other man was already out of sight. Frustrated he stormed back to the boiler room, and lifted the shovel like he bore it a personal grudge.

"'Stay put Duo'. 'Don't worry your head Duo.' 'Keep the pipes hot Duo.'" He scraped the shovel blade on the side of the stove hard enough to make it spark, "Well, 'Duo' has had it up to here with getting bossed around. What the hell does he think I am?"

"A boiler slave," Trowa's voice came down the speaking tube unexpectedly, "And a very loud one. Now quit belly aching and give me two seventy five millimeters of mercury on the fore sail."

"Aye aye, Mister Bossy-Bloomers, sir," Duo snarled, but he got to work.

Duo's anger didn't last long. Between the pocket of cold air they were still hovering over, and the distraction of the attack, he had a lot of shoveling to do to get the stove back where it should be. The work was simple but backbreaking, and Trowa wasn't in the mood to show any sympathy for an overworked boiler slave. Instead he insisted on using the propellers to put as much distance between their ship and the Marquise's downed aerostat as he could. Duo grumbled about being ordered around, but he only took a break from shoveling coal to try and set the steam valves to a more efficient configuration.

There was a sense of urgency about the day that didn't let up until they hit a warmer patch of air with a more favorable wind near the end of the shift. Trowa made a few requests to adjust the pressure on the sails, and then told Duo to get his head down for a couple of hours. Duo hadn't seen Heero since he left on whatever errand had call him so urgently, and Trowa seemed to have formed the opinion that he would be working alone for the duration.

Duo was just hanging up the shovel when Heero walked into the boiler room carrying a bowl of soup. The shorter man made no excuses for his absence, he merely shoved the bowl into Duo's hands and went to check the gauges. Neither the stove on the far side of the room, nor the lamps near the door provided the best light to judge complexions, but Duo could still tell his companion was unusually pale. Heero's face was pinched and his shoulders flexed anxiously, like a trapped animal, but he didn't move stiffly or appear to have been hurt.

"News?" Duo asked.

Heero flinched, "We found some cloud cover and a good wind. Trowa's catching a cat nap while he can, he thinks we've probably lost them."

"I thought their ship was shot down?"

Heero shrugged, "Quatre was mostly bluffing. He managed to damage their envelope, but not badly. They'll have patched it within a few hours. And that was a scouting ship anyway."

"Damn," Duo sighed.

"Aa."

Silence settled over the boiler room, and Duo ate his soup slowly while he watched Heero move about the room, adjusting valves gently here and there and then moving to arrange the burning coal more to his liking. Duo took the opportunity to give his companion's profile another long look. His eyes were redder than seemed reasonable from the stove light, and his cheeks might have been wet with sweat, and it might have been something else.

Finally the cowboy set the bowl down. By leaning forward he could just brush Heeros' arm with his fingertips, "What aren't you telling me?"

Heero flinched again, scraping the shovel harshly on the edge of the stove. "Nothing," he said.

"You're a shitty liar."

There was another long moment of silence where Heero wouldn't meet Duo's eyes, but then he suddenly jerked into motion, shoveling coal into the stove even though it didn't need it. "Wufei's dying," he said.

"Woah! Easy there!" Duo said, jumping up and laying a hand on Heero's arm to stop him over-heating the stove, "He's dying?"

"I didn't realize that man -- Zechs -- I froze. He almost, but Wufei shoved me and --" Heero rambled, unable to make a coherent sentence, but giving Duo enough he could guess what had happened.

Gently, the braided man pulled Heero into a firm embrace. Duo was surprised when the shorter man returned the gesture by fisting his hands in the back of his flannel shirt and clinging like Duo was the only thing between himself and drowning. "Easy, easy," Duo whispered, feeling more and more like he was calming a skittish animal. "It's okay, I understand."

"Understand?!" Heero's voice broke.

Duo just rubbed his back for a moment, "I hardly know Wufei, but... But you two were close, yeah?"

Heero nodded.

"Tell me about him."

"I was ten years old and up for auction on the Nagasaki slave blocks when he bought me for Captain Howard..." Heero began, and suddenly the whole story was pouring out of him. He told Duo about growing up a pet of the Yakuza, his mixed blood branding him as a member of the lowest castes. He explained how Wufei had outbid a brothel owner and a factory owner to buy him, and how he'd brought him on board the ship to serve as a clever pair of hands that could get into tight spaces. But by the time Heero was fifteen he had outgrown the job and was moved to helping out in the boiler room because he knew where all the pipes went.

Back then the ship had been newer, and the secondary boiler had worked so it only took one man to shovel coal and keep an eye on the pressure gauges. Zechs Marquise had been working in the boiler room at the time, but he kept talking about wanting to become a pilot. In the beginning he had been kind to Heero, always showing him how things worked and praising him for doing a good job. But more and more often that praise came with an overly familiar hand on his shoulder, or a feeling of being stared at. And later, there were propositions.

"Smug bastard," Duo snarled when he heard this.

Heero laughed weakly despite himself, "That's exactly what Wufei said. He caught Zechs pushing the issue once, and he asked me if I was enjoying," he shuddered, "the attention. When I told him I wasn't he started giving me lessons too."

Those had been good days. Duo listened as Heero talked fondly about how Wufei would teach him ways to defend himself. He was a quick learner, and had made the Chinese man quite pleased with his progress in unarmed combat. The only dissatisfaction he expressed with Heero was that he couldn't get time or permission to teach the boiler slave the use of any weapons.

Heero suspected that Wufei had also had words with Zechs, as the advances cooled for a while afterwards. But then they made their annual stop in Singapore, and Wufei left the ship for two weeks while Heero was confined to the lower deck. Zechs had decided to press his suit, insisting that he was owed for all the training he had given Heero. Unfortunately for the blond man, it was Wufei's training that Heero brought to mind there. He had hit the other man hard enough he broke a valve seating when he fell.

"Is that what happened to that gauge setup I had to jury-rig?" Duo asked.

"Er, yes..." Heero said guiltily.

"Pity you didn't break his head as well," Duo said.

Heero nodded, "Wufei said that, too."

Duo found himself smiling slightly at the affection in Heero's voice. He shook the other man's shoulder gently, "Is that so? And what else did that wise guy say?"

"He always has good advice," Heero said, "and he can be very persuasive when he wants to be."

Which had worked in Heero's favor when Zechs went to Howard about what had happened. Howard had been so furious he'd called Wufei back from his shore leave to take a beating along with Heero for Zechs's black eye. But Wufei had spoken with the captain privately, and in the end Zechs had been dismissed and Heero had been allowed to stay on, though he had been confined to the boiler room as punishment. He'd also been put at the disposal of the new engineer, a man named Trant Clark.

Trant had been a sub-par engineer, but he fancied himself some kind of misunderstood genius. The results of his tinkering included irreparable damage to the secondary boiler, and the sub-par job repairing the pressure gauge Zechs had damaged when he fell. Whenever one of his 'improvements' caught Howards attention, he would blame Heero for not following his orders correctly. The man was clearly insane, and when he'd finally decided that the best thing for the ship would be if Heero were fed to the coal stove, the young slave had broken his arm.

At that point Howard had been about ready to have Heero thrown overboard, except they were without anyone else to manage the coal fires, and without the secondary boiler they required twenty four hour attention. Trant had yelled at Howard about Heero's unwillingness to cooperate, and Wufei had demanded to know when listening to a madman had become a desirable trait in a crewman. The result was they left Trant in San Francisco, and picked up Duo at their next stop north. But Howard had again confined Heero to the boiler room, and this time he had made Wufei entirely responsible for both of the boiler slaves.

"I wasn't supposed to be above deck anyway, and then I saw Zechs..." Heero said, "He recognized me, but I wasn't ready --"

By this point both men were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the floor of the boiler room, one or the other occasionally getting up to check a gauge or put some coal on the fire. Duo laid an arm around Heero's shoulders and gave him a squeeze, "Hey, no one blames you for freezing up. You couldn't have known he was going to be there."

Heero shook his head, clearly angry with himself, "No, you don't get it. I had a chance to take the gun, disarm him. I've been trained enough, it would have been easy. But he looked right at me, sighted at me, and then Wufei was pushing me out of the way and I was useless!" Heero slammed his fist on the metal floor of the boiler room hard enough that Duo could feel the vibrations from where he was sitting.

"Hey, easy. It can happen to anyone in a gun fight," he said, but it was clear Heero didn't want to be consoled.

"But it shouldn't have happened to him!" Heero snarled.

Duo lay a firm hand on Heero's shoulder, turning the other man to face him, "You said Wufei was dying, not that he was dead. How badly was he shot?"

"The arm. But there was so much blood..."

Duo breathed a sigh of relief. A gunshot to the arm could be treated, even if there was a lot of blood loss. If Wufei wasn't already dead, then the bleeding had been stopped and the biggest threat to the Chinese man was getting too chilled. If he had been shot in the stomach or something it would have been kinder to just put another bullet between his eyes.

The expression of relief on Duo's face didn't make any sense to Heero though. He had held Wufei while Quatre stitched up the arm and staunched the bleeding. Duo didn't seem to appreciate at all how dangerous the wound was. "Don't look like that!" he snapped, "He still -- Quatre doesn't think he'll last the night!"

"Hey, don't judge me so harsh," Duo replied, "I'm just glad he didn't take a lead ball to the guts. Look, did you guys get any soup into him? He needs warm liquids like beef broth or even that bone marrow goop he likes so much."

Heero blinked at him, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about treating blood loss. You've got to keep him warm, and give him fluids. He also needs to take it easy -- if you can keep him laying down for a couple of days he just might surprise you. He's a stubborn cuss if nothing else"

"We didn't --" Heero's face grew pale, "Wufei is usually the doctor so we didn't know..."

Duo stood up and yanked Heero to his feet, "Look, you're not locked in here. Go get something warm down him. I don't want to see you back here until you've fed him and had some sleep yourself."

Heero caught his hand on the doorway of the boiler room before he could be hustled into the corridor, "But what about you? You've been working alone..."

Duo shrugged, "I guess I need less sleep than you do. But I'll catch a cat nap and then I'm going to see about getting that secondary boiler back up and running. We could damn well use the help!"

"Aa," Heero managed, and then Duo had shuffled him down the corridor and into the hallway.

The braided man didn't wait to see if his crew mate followed his directions, he snagged the blanket from the bunk and went to settle down on the jump seat for the promised nap. He had a feeling he was going to be needing the rest in the near future. 'Heero's going to be useless until Wufei is stabilized,' he thought to himself, 'but who can blame the kid when the guy he's in love with took a bullet for him?'

Another shift had passed. Trowa had woken him up from his nap with a sharp whistle and a demand for a pressure adjustment. Apparently he'd had to call a few times because he complained about how slow the boiler room was. When Duo explained that he was the only one working at the moment, the pilot had nearly exploded.

"What the hell happened to Heero?!"

"I sent him to get some soup into Wufei before the crazy Chinaman dies from being shot," Duo said.

"Fuck," Trowa snapped, and Duo's eyebrows nearly reached his hairline at hearing that word.

"I take it you don't mean that literally," he replied.

"No, but I damn well mean that was a damn fool thing to do. Captain's going to kill him."

"What are you talking about?"

But Trowa wasn't feeling like answering questions, "How long ago did you send our engine mechanic to play nursemaid?"

"About two hours."

There was a loud clicking noise from the tube, and then a long silence. Just when Duo was starting to wonder if the tube had broken down there was another click and Trowa's voice was back, "Okay, looks like Captain Howard didn't kill him, but he might as well have. I'm having Quatre send him down as soon as he can. You can have a turn playing nursemaid if it's so important to you."

"I really hate it when folks don't give me a clear story." Duo snapped back.

"Poor pitiful you," Trowa said, "Now give me 10 millimeters more pressure all around before Heero shows up."

Duo grumbled but did as he'd been asked. When Heero hadn't returned by the time he finished shoveling coal, he decided the other man wasn't going to be coming by in the immediate future so he set to work trying to figure out what was wrong with the secondary boiler. He'd thought it was just a reservoir for the primary boiler, but now that he looked more closely he saw that the big copper tank was actually a large thermal tank. It was supposed to be used to keep a ready supply of fairly hot water on hand so the pressure of the steam system could be adjusted without having to always shovel coal or blow off steam with the valves. If the secondary tank were working the boiler room would be manageable by one person, rather than the current setup that took every minute of waking attention from two people.

He just about figured out what had been done to disable system when he realized that he was counting extra valves because he was so tired he was seeing double. So reluctantly, and still without any sign of Heero, Duo retreated back to the jumpseat and fell into a fitful sleep.

He woke to another whistle from the pilot, and it was back to work. He had just scraped the coal shovel on the edge of the stove for the third time when Heero returned. He was dressed in his wrap and long pants again, and moving stiffly, but he took the shovel from Duo without a word.

A vague memory that Heero had been in trouble filtered into Duo's awareness, "You okay?" he asked.

"Aa," Heero replied, "Go get some sleep before you fall into the stove."

Blearily Duo nodded, "Yeah, wouldn't want any Hansel and Gretel," he mumbled and then he was curling up with the blanket right in the corner of the boiler room and falling into an exhausted sleep.

The next time Duo woke he was laying in the small bunk, with a bowl of cold stew at his elbow. He ate without hardly noticing what he was putting in his mouth and then he returned to the boiler room. Heero was back to shoveling coal, his jacket crumpled in a heap on the jumpseat and his feet looking surprisingly small peeking out of his full legged pants. The chain had been re-attached to his flight harness, and the metal swung with each shovel load of fuel. When he heard Duo stepping into the room he turned, and the angry red marks on his back almost glowed in the light from the coal fire.

"You should still be sleeping," Heero said.

Duo shook his head, "So should you, probably. What the hell happened to your back?"

Heero scowled and turned back to the stove, "Captain Howard was not pleased that Wufei was hurt on my account."

Duo stepped closer and gently turned Heero's back to the light so he could survey the damage. The skin was only broken in one or two places, and it was clear by the way the welts skipped that the harness had offered some protection. As far as whippings went, it wasn't the worst the cowboy had seen, but "That's still gotta hurt like a bitch," he said.

Heero shrugged out of his grip almost petulantly and turned back to the stove, "Nothing I didn't earn."

"Shove that," Duo said, rolling his eyes, but he fished around in one of the tool bins for a spare wrench and crawled behind the secondary boiler to get a better look at what had been done to it, "That geezer does know that slavery is illegal these days, right?"

"What part of being shanghaied made you think this was a legal ship?" Heero said, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation for a while.

When the silence had stretched long enough Duo was feeling antsy he decided to try a new topic, "How's Wufei?"

There was a pause in the sound of the shovel being inserted in the coal bin, "He will live," Heero said. "He thanks you for sending the soup and should be back on his feet this evening."

"Ha," Duo said, "told you it'd do him good."

"Aa," Heero agreed.

The next couple of days continued much like that, with small bursts of conversation followed by long bouts of silence. Whatever camaraderie and flirtation had been blossoming had evaporated in the aftermath of Zechs's attack on The Dutchman. During the shifts they shared, Heero watched the gauges and valves and shoveled coal as Trowa demanded. Duo crawled around any part of the system not too hot to touch and began to slowly untangle the mess of pipes, valves and blockages that had been left by the previous mechanic. While putting the crazy system together had no doubt taken months it was thankfully a simple task to reverse what had done and get the room back up and running.

Duo wasn't sure how much time had passed when Wufei suddenly reappeared as the one delivering meals. Up until that point the mysterious Quatre, a shortish figure in a flight cap and goggles, had been dropping off trays of soup or gruel. Duo had been disturbed the first time he was there to see the food delivered because the other man never spoke a word or even seemed to acknowledge he was there. It was a great relief to the braided cowboy when Wufei appeared with a tray of food in one arm, and his other in a sling.

"Wufei!" he whispered excitedly, "How're you feeling? I heard you tried to eat lead?"

Wufei smirked, "No, I merely thought a pierced arm would be most fetching. Where is Heero, he said you were worried about me?"

Duo nodded to the curtained bunk, "He's been running ragged, so I'm letting him sleep in a bit. I'll wake him up in a minute." Duo then paused, hesitant about what he next wanted to say, "Look, Wufei, can I talk to you a bit before he wakes up?

"Of course," Wufei said, and he took a seat cross legged on the floor of the corridor, "What's on your mind?"

"It's about Heero," Duo said, "I don't know if you've realized, and I know it's not really my place to say, but some one's gotta tell you or nothing will get done and --"

"Just spit it out."

"I'm pretty sure he's got some feelings fo you. Strong ones." When Wufei's only reaction was to raise an eyebrow Duo pressed on, wondering how the other man could be so oblivious, "I mean I think he... Damn it I don't want to say he "fancies" you because that just sounds frivolous, but... He cares about you. A lot. Might even be love."

"He told you this?" Wufei asked, an inscrutable look on his face.

"Not exactly, but if you'd seen him when you got hurt..."

Wufei finally couldn't hold it any more and burst out laughing, though fortunately his quiet chuckle wasn't enough to wake Heero from his deep sleep.

"I hardly think Heero's emotions are a laughing matter," Duo scolded, "If you're going to hurt him, I'll just finish what Zechs started!"

Wufei got control of himself enough to pat Duo on the arm and shake his head, "No, no, you misunderstand. You misunderstand quite spectacularly! Heero is like... Well he is most like a younger brother. And even if he admires me, he is not the type to chase a hopeless fantasy."

"Hopeless?!" Duo said, "You mean you don't see how attractive and kind he is?!"

"Of course I do," Wufei said, "But only in a brotherly way. Besides, Heero knows I am married, he's even met my wife."

Duo blinked at him, "You're married?!"

Wufei smirked, "Oh yes. She's quite a good pilot, but Captain Howard won't have women on his ship, and neither of us takes orders from the other. So she runs her own all women's crew, and we arrange to meet in Singapore every few months to catch up."

"Oh," Duo said, not sure what else to add.

"Yes. Oh." Wufei looked smug, "I advise you to rely on what you observe from Heero in the future. Not whatever non-existant emotions you attribute to him."

"I'm never living this down, am I?" Duo asked.

"If you mean, will I let you forget? No, never." Wufei said, "Now go wake Heero, I want to take a look at his back and make sure he eats."

"Yes sir," Duo said.

The shift that followed was a surprisingly good one. With Wufei back up and about, Heero seemed to perk up, but when Duo watched their interactions over the meal he was surprised to see only what Wufei had said was there. Two young men who cared about each other, but might as well have been partners or brothers -- not lovers. When Heero listened to Wufei, it was with the air of some one seeking advice rather than the fawning of a courtier. Duo found himself inexplicably pleased with this development, and so he returned to work on the secondary boiler with an unusually light step and open mind. It turned out to be just what was needed.

Duo hadn't realized how close he was to untangling the mess of pipes until halfway through the shift when he discovered all that was left was to run a connection between the back up boiler and the main outlet shaft. Of course, that meant finding the place where the pipe had been sealed off originally, and then running the connection while everything was filled with boiling hot steam. Stymied, he sat back in the jumpseat to try and think of a solution.

"Have you finished whatever it was you're doing?" Heero asked.

"Mostly," Duo said, "I just need to figure out how to hook the secondary boiler up to the main system, and then we should have this working again."

"You can get the secondary working as a heat sink again?" Heero asked, stunned.

"Well, yeah," Duo said, "it'd be working now, except we need a way to feed steam between the two pipe systems. Otherwise it's just redundant."

"One second!" Heero said, suddenly animated. He turned to a small red valve low on one side of the stove and turned it with the help of a spare wrench. A few seconds later Trowa's angry voice sounded from the speaking tube, demanding to know where his power had gone.

Heero ignored the complaints entirely, and flipped open a panel to reveal another valve Duo had never seen before. This one was a large wheel, and Heero's back strained visibly as he hauled on it. The mechanism was old, but thankfully not rusty, and soon Heero had it turned several notches. He stepped back and eyed a few of the pressure gauges that had flatlined when he adjusted the red valve, "Why didn't that work?"

Duo walked up next to him and casually flipped a dead man's catch on the connecting pipe, "That should do it."

The needles of the gauges began to rise, and then steady themselves at their designated levels. There was a muffled shout from the speaking tube that seemed to be both surprised and pleased. And suddenly Duo found himself with an arm full of Heero and the other man pressing their lips together fiercely. Though the move was unexpected, Duo had enough sense to steady his feet and respond to the kiss before they fell over.

"Heero?" He gasped when they finally parted.

"You fixed it! You really fixed it!" The exotic angles of Heero's face shown more clearly when he smiled, "You have no idea -- Duo -- how much -- Thank you!"

"Uh, you're welcome?" Duo said, surprised.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Heero asked slightly confused.

"Apparently made you very happy?" Duo ventured.

"Happy?!" Heero said, "With the secondary boiler running, we only need one person working in the boiler room, and they can take a full shift of sleep! Proper sleep, Duo!"

Duo found himself smiling at Heero's excitement despite himself, "Well, if you're that pleased about everything why don't you go take a nap? I'm sure I can handle things here if Trowa needs anything."

Heero looked momentarily torn, "Are you sure?

Duo rolled his eyes, "I'm sure. I've had a couple days off from shoveling coal, I'm sure a couple of hours won't kill me. Go get a nap."

Heero graced Duo with another brief smile and then made his way to the bunk. Duo sighed fondly after him, and then wondered what they were going to do with all their new-found free time.

About an hour later, when a new alarm klaxon sounded, Duo decided 'free time' was a cruel lie used to keep people from jumping overboard. Heero didn't care so much about Duo's theories, as he did about finding out what was going on, and what they could do about it. "Proximity alarm!" The Japanese man tugged sharply at the chain attached to his harness. "I hate this," he snarled.

"What the hell are we supposed to do anyway?" Duo said, "It's not like we've got battle stations or anything."

"Maybe you can't throw a punch to save your life, but I can fight," Heero said, "I won't let them past again!"

"Yeah, well you'd have to be free from that harness --" Duo began, but he trailed off mid sentence. "Hey, take your jacket off and turn around a second."

"What?!"

Duo rolled his eyes and started tugging on the belt that was holding Heero's jacket closed, "Just do it."

"Duo!" Heero tried to catch the other man's quick hands and stop him, "This is not the time!"

"The hell it is!" Duo said, "Let me get a look at that harness, I think I know how to get it off."

Heero froze and let Duo finish stripping him out of the jacket and spin him so his back was to the light from the coal stove. The braided man lifted the padlock that attached the chain to the back of Heero's harness and examined it quickly. "I thought so," Duo said, "It's a shit lock, just like everything else on the damn ship."

"And what does that mean?" Heero asked.

Duo was already rummaging in one of the tool bins where he had put spare piping from when he fixed the boiler. He emerged a second later with two lengths of very thin pipe. Heero remembered the slender copper tubes because Howard had pitched a fit over their cost. Duo however wasted no time in jamming both of them into the padlock on Heero's back and fiddling around. There was a scraping noise and then a clank and suddenly he felt the weight of the chain fall away.

"You picked the lock," Heero said.

"Jimmied it, yeah," Duo said, "But now I have to figure out how to deal with mine when I can't reach it, much less see it."

Heero shook his head, "No. You stay here, it'll be safe. No one throws away a mechanic if it can be helped."

Duo grabbed Heero tightly by the shoulder, "If you think I unlocked you to let you run out there on you're own you're a complete idiot and you can forget ever getting a kiss from me again."

Heero blinked at him and then looked away, suddenly shy, "You mean I could -- again? I... But, it's just --"

"You don't want me hurt, I know," Duo said, more softly, "But you've got to trust me. And who says I want you out there getting hurt, or whipped, or worse where I can't watch your back?"

"Duo," Heero said. And then he frowned, "How are you going to get out of here anyway? As long as that harness is on..."

Duo's grip on Heero's shoulder shifted from clutching to a gentle stroking, his fingers caressing the leather strap of the harness on each pass. He watched his hand idly, then suddenly let Heero go and smacked his forehead with his palm, "I'm an idiot," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Heero yelled as the boarding alarm sounded.

Duo bent down and began fishing in his boot, "I had this the whole goddamn time. I could have had us both free days ago, but no. I had to be an idiot," he stood up holding a sliver of polished bone in his hand. A flick of his wrist revealed the bone to be the handle of a straight razor. "Shaved myself every damn morning and never thought that the razor's also a knife."

"Where did you get that?" Heero asked, but he took the blade from Duo and quickly cut the shoulder straps of his harness. The leather and chains fell to the floor of the boiler room with a clank.

"Cowboy trick -- if you keep your razor in your boot it doesn't fall out when you're riding herd."

Heero folded the blade and handed it back, "Good trick."

There was a loud whistle from the speaking tube, and both young men turned to it. Trowa's voice echoed clearly in the boiler room, though it was evident he wasn't addressing them, "You again!"

"Indeed, Mister Barton, I return somewhat better prepared this time," Heero growled at the sound of Zechs's voice, "I believe this is a friend of yours."

"Quatre!"

"I told you to leave Trowa out of this!" Quatre yelled.

"And we will," this was a new voice. Smooth and cultured, but with an edge of cruelty that was clear even through the speaking tube. "But you really must cooperate. Let's have no more puncturing of dirigible envelopes please."

"I don't trust you, Kushrenada," Quatre said.

"How astute of you," Zechs said, "but you don't have much choice. Your midshipman is injured, the Capitan is, ahem, indisposed, and I hear the two little boiler slaves are regretfully tied up."

"So what now?" Quatre asked, "Are you going to take over the ship? Strip us bare and set us alight?"

"Nothing of the sort," Kushrenada answered, "Your petty smuggled cargo of chocolate and whiskey are of no interest to me. There is only one thing of value on this ship, and you will come along quietly or we will be forced to kill the pilot."

"No!" Both Quatre and Trowa yelled, but Quatre continued, "I want your solemn oath as a gentleman, a pirate, and a member of the Luxembourg aristocracy."

"Quatre you can't let him do this," Trowa said.

"I can and will, if he'll give me his oath," Quatre replied.

Kushrenada laughed, "How noble of you. Yes Quatre, I give you my oath as a gentleman, a pirate and member of the House of Luxembourg that neither I, nor my crew, will harm Trowa Barton so long as you cooperate with us fully."

"Agreed."

There was a series of shuffling, and then Trowa's voice came down the speaking tube again. "I know you two have slipped your harnesses," he said, "and if you don't bring Quatre back you'd better hope you can glide two hundred miles to land because I'll be damned if I fly you one inch further."

Duo and Heero exchanged a quick glance and both nodded. "We're on it," Duo replied. Heero was already out the door and on his way to ready a glider.

Acting on a hunch, Duo first made his way to the door way where he'd seen Zechs escape before. One wall of the room had been slid open, and Duo was nearly blinded by the bright daylight that poured in. As he'd hoped, he found Heero there checking over the thin parchment wings of a glider. The device looked like like a cross between a bicycle and an oversized kite, but Duo had seen some amazing stunts preformed with them. "You know how to fly that thing?" he asked.

Heero nodded, "It's not too hard. Lean when I tell you to and we'll be fine." He straddled the forward seat of the glider and gestured for Duo to settle in behind him. A moment later they were running out of the hanger and then their feet were dangling over nearly a mile of thin air.

Gliding, Duo decided, was what he had been born to do. It was more freedom than riding a horse, with a horizon wider than the whole Great Planes to chase. As they swooped around, using the bulk of The Dutchman's envelope to cover their flight, he decided it was more thrilling than riding on top of a freight train. It was also bitterly cold, with a wind that cut through thin flannel and cotton and made talking impossible. But that seemed like a petty price to pay for having the whole world laid at your feet. Duo knew immediately that he would never be able to wear a harness again. After dancing through the sky, he would sooner try flying without a glider than live for weeks in a tiny room with no windows.

The flight was surprisingly short -- Kushrenada's dirigible had grappled The Dutchman, and was sitting slightly lower than the familiar ship -- but it provided Duo with his first glimpse of either vessel from the outside. Though he was no expert in the design of lighter than air travel, Duo could quickly tell that The Dutchman didn't measure up to Kushrenada's smart white zeppelin-class. The Dutchman was small, with a hanging gondola and a patched envelope, and sported two very small propellers and several large sails. Kushrenada's ship was huge, with large engines and a frame under its envelope that meant it was designed to ignore unfavorable air currents.

Heero adroitly landed their glider on the wide expanse of the white envelope and hopped off quickly. Duo joined him in hooking the lead lines of the glider to the network of rope ladders that allowed for maintenance of the envelope. "Hey, why did we land up here?" Duo asked.

"Where else would we land?" Heero replied.

"I thought I saw some large hook things on the gondola of the ship. Couldn't we tether on one of those?"

Heero pulled tight the knot he was tying, "If we were another airship sure. But you can't attach a mooring line to one of those from a moving glider."

Duo frowned, "Sure you could. The glider's a smooth ride, it can't be any harder than roping a steer in high wind."

Heero raised an eyebrow, "They have winds that high where you come from?"

The cowboy just laughed, "Heero buddy, they don't have windsocks in Wyoming. They have wind chains."

"I find that hard to believe," Heero said as they began climbing down the rigging toward the gondola.

"This from a guy who expects me to believe people eat raw fish."

"With horseradish."

"Now I know you're pulling my leg," Duo said.

They continued to banter as they climbed down the side of the zeppelin. Both men were trying to take their minds off of what they were trying to do. They would have to sneak on board the obviously military airship, then find and release Quatre. After all of that, they would have to figure out how to get three people off of the ship when they only had a two-seat glider. Duo caught himself thanking his lucky stars that The Dutchman was still tethered to the enemy ship by grappling hooks. Without those tethers, reuniting in midair would be nearly impossible.

They reached the walkway along the top of the gondola just as a shudder shook the whole structure. "What was that?" Duo asked.

Heero glanced aft, "Looks like they're lowering the door of a bay. It might be just a cargo hold, or it could be a glider hanger on a ship this large."

"You think they're going to send gliders after The Dutchman?"

Heero shook his head, "More likely they're opening it so Trezie can fly in. Two of the grapple lines head right in it, and if he used a zip-slider it'd be no problem."

"Well, I suppose it's nice of them to open the door for us anyway," Duo said.

"What are you thinking?" Heero asked, but Duo was already moving.

"I'm thinking we should see about using the hanger as a way to sneak in."

"Idiot!" Heero hissed, but he followed quickly after.

The door to the hold was clearly meant for use during landing as it opened like a drawbridge. The ship listed slightly as the pilot tried to compensate for what was effectively an extra rudder. Heero and Duo, meanwhile, had managed to station themselves directly above the opening. Without waiting, Heero slipped over the railing of the walkway, and let himself hang in front of the opening. He nodded once to Duo and then swung himself blindly into the darkness of the hold. Duo cursed recklessness under his breath, but lowered himself just the same and followed after.

It turned out the docking area was a combination glider hanger and storage hold. Along the sides were large crates that looked too unwieldy to be moved to another part of the ship. The central area was clear except for two lines of gliders set neatly into rails and facing the opening. Heero was giving one a quick once over when Duo landed next to him with a thunk. Now that they were out of the wind, the sounds of the hold seemed unusually loud, and the creak of a door opening carried easily. Both men quickly scrambled up the far side of the crates, managing to position themselves well out of sight.

They peered quietly over the edge of the box and watched as a young woman in a red uniform stepped into the hold. She was tall and wore her hair in two severe spirals of braid over the ears; a style favored by the central European aristocracy. She held herself at attention as a basket whistled down the two grapple lines and landed itself abruptly in the center of the hanger. She didn't twitch as Zechs and his strange assistant stepped from the basket, nor as they hauled a short figure in goggles and a flight cap after them. But when the last man, unmistakably Kushrenada from his bearing, set foot on the cargo hold she executed a deep and abrupt bow.

"Ah my Lady Une," Kushrenada said, "I take it the ship has been running smoothly in my brief absence?"

"Yes Your Excellency," the woman said, "Everything is prepared for you to resume command at your leisure."

"How convenient," Kushrenada said. "I'll head to the bridge immediately. Please take over here. Make sure Winner understands the situation, and install him in the cell we have readied for him. Zechs and Noin will be happy to assist you."

"Sir!" Une executed a salute so sharp Duo winced, sure something must have been sliced by the motion.

Then the imposing figure of Captain Kushrenada strolled from the room and a new kind of tension followed in his wake. As soon as he was out of sight, Zechs and Noin straightened and their postures radiated hostility to the young woman. Quatre struggled just enough that he was standing upright, and he met Une's gaze steadily from beneath his goggles. Une did not appear amused by the display as she reached out and viciously yanked the goggles down around the young man's neck.

Duo had to fight not to gasp at what he saw. Quatre's profile was as attractive as it was distinctive, from his fine nose to his strong jaw. Where the flight gear had covered him his skin was a creamy white, but where it had faced the elements it had turned a golden bronze. His hair was thick and richly blond and it stuck up in strange directions after having been tousled by the goggles. Even being held between two brutes and looking disarrayed the young man was recognizable as Quatre Raberba Winner, once-heir to the Calif of Franco-Arabia and one of the most infamous men to ever grace polite society.

"That's Quatre Winner!" Duo hissed.

Heero smacked his arm and gave him a withering look. Clearly their crewmate's identity was not so much of a surprise for the young boiler slave.

Une, however, seemed content to echo Duo's thoughts, "Quatre Raberba Winner. Welcome aboard. I trust you'll enjoy your stay while we bring you home to your father."

Quatre snorted, "If that's what this is all about, you're wasting your time. I thought my disinheritance was front page on all the scandal rags. Apparently it missed a few."

"Oh no, Mister Winner," Une said, "we are well aware of your spat with your father. The way you ran off with the pilot on your personal airyacht. A lowly boiler slave, and a man at that." She began to circle Quatre, "Yes, we are well aware of your history. But you really should thank us, we've found a way for you to be redeemed in your father's eyes."

Quatre continued to stare straight ahead, but his pale brows drew together in a frown, "That's an impossibility."

"Hardly. I'm sure your father would welcome you back if you arrived cured of your homosexuality and on the arm of a respectable young lady. The follies of the young are often forgiven once a mature attitude had been displayed."

"What a lovely fantasy you live," Quatre said, "children must adore your fairy tales."

Noin and Zechs seemed to stiffen further at Quatre's words, and they jerked him about slightly as they adjusted their grips on him. Une just gave a cold chuckle, "Oh this is hardly a fantasy," she said. "While Trant Clark is a poor mechanic I assure you he's a genius with electrotherapies."

Quatre's face paled dramatically, and Duo could feel tension running through Heero's arm where it rested against his own. "Impossible."

"No, merely improbable. Did you really think it chance that the best mechanic your Capitan" she sneered the word, "could find to replace our Zechs was an incompetent madman? He was supposed to sabotage your ship enough you would stop for extended repairs in San Francisco so that we could grab you. Unfortunately we didn't count on your Capitan turning him loose and taking off so abruptly.

"But it hardly matters now, doesn't it? We'll soon have you married off to the lovely Miss Relena Peacecraft, and with the honorable Capitan Duke Treize Kushrenada presiding, who would question it?"

"This is madness!" Quatre cried, resuming his struggling in earnest, "You can't do this to me, I'm a free man!"

"Didn't you know?" Une said as Zechs and Noin frog marched their charge out of the room, "You're only free as long as you haven't been caught."

As they left, the open hatch began to close, leaving the hanger in semi-darkness only pierced by a few high windows and single gas lamp near the door to the rest of the gondola. Duo glanced at Heero in the gloom, barely able to make out the glitter of his companion's eyes. The soot that seemed to have become a permanent grime on both their faces made distinguishing any expression in the low light impossible.

"We've got to get him out of here."

"Ah," Heero agreed, "We'll need a distraction though. There will be more soldiers inside the gondola."

"But they won't be expecting an attack from inside their ship!" Duo protested.

"Which is why they will believe it is a mechanical failure when I sabotage their engines."

Duo stared at him, "How the hell are you going to do that? It's not like they won't notice a couple of grubby boiler slaves wandering around."

Heero made a motion that might have been a shrug, "It's a big ship. I can use the access tunnels."

"You're going to crawl around inside a bunch of holes in the walls, like an over grown rat, and mess up their engines, while I am doing what exactly?"

"You're going to find Quatre and break him out," Heero said.

Duo frowned at him, though the look was lost in the gloom, "You're lucky I brought the lock picks."

"Ah," Heero said, "We'll meet back here in ten minutes."

"Good plan," Duo said, "if I'm not back I want you to take the glider and get the hell out of here."

"No." Heero replied sharply, "I will not leave you behind."

"And I'm not going to ask you to hang here like a sitting duck," Duo frowned.

Heero laid a strong hand on the cowboy's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze, "This is all or nothing. There will be nothing for me on The Dutchman if I return empty handed."

Duo raised one hand to cover Heero's, "All or nothing, huh?"

Heero gave him another squeeze and then moved along the crates to a hatch on the top of the wall, "Close this behind me."

"Hey Heero," Duo caught the other man by the wrist before he could climb into the maintenance shaft, "Be safe."

There was a moment of hesitation, and then Heero leaned in and gave him a quick kiss, catching only the corner of Duo's mouth in the dark, "You too."

A moment later Duo was alone in the docking bay with no idea how safe Heero was, nor any sense of where to look for a prisoner on a military airship. He made his way carefully down from the crates, wincing at the loud noise his boots made on the floor of the hanger. Before he opened the door to the ship proper he glanced around for anything that might be useful in a fight. The best he could find was a coil of thin rope laying on top of a crate just at the edge of the lamplight. He took a moment to tie it into a lasso and then slung it over his shoulder with a vague thought to use it to tangle or throttle an enemy. Then he slipped the razor out of his boot and into his hand.

The door slid open silently on well oiled rails and gave him a chance to look around the hallway before he stepped out. After being confined for so long to the narrow corridor of The Dutchman, the hallway was spacious with room for two people to walk side by side comfortably. A few doors opened off either side, and there was a recess about halfway down the passageway that provided ladder access to the other levels of the ship.

The whole area was empty, but not silent. Angry shouts echoed down the ladder shaft from the deck above. While there was nothing as distinct as words, or even voice, Duo was willing to bet the person yelling was Quatre. He listened carefully as he made his way down the hall, and was relieved when the cries sounded more angry than hurt. He hoped that would continue until he could find their source.

He was nearly to the ladder when he heard the unmistakable sound of boots on the rungs. Crossing his fingers he ducked into the nearest door. It opened on a narrow bunk room with two men sleeping heavily on the small beds inside. Duo flicked open his razor and held his breath as he listened to the boots stomp past down the corridor. The men on the bunks didn't so much as twitch, and he counted to thirty slowly before opening the door. Once again the passageway was deserted.

For a moment Duo considered slitting the throats of the men in the bunks. It would be quick, and he'd be done before either had a chance to wake and discover what was happening, but he discarded the thought almost immediately. He was not the kind of man to kill another in his sleep. He toyed for a moment with dressing himself in one of the guard's discarded outfits, but it seemed pointless. Even a large zeppelin was not big enough for crew members to not recognize each other on sight. Instead he looked quickly through the tangle of clothes dumped in the middle of the bunk room floor. As he had hoped there were a couple of loaded handguns tossed in among the scattered bits of uniform.

With a grim smile he stole both pistols and a hip holster, and made his way back into the hallway. By this point the yelling had stopped and Duo hoped that just meant that Quatre had grown tired of making all the noise, not that he had been knocked out or badly hurt. He hurried up the ladder, cursing the clatter his boots made, and peeked out on the hallway of the second deck.

This floor clearly housed the observation decks, as an open doorway further down gave a glimpse of a large window. A guard stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him before moving across the hall. Duo watched as he unlocked a door on the near side of the hall and passed a canteen of water inside before he relocked it and took up a guard posture outside. Since it was the only guarded doorway Duo had seen on the whole ship, chances were good that it opened on the room where Quatre was being kept hostage.

"What would be really nice right now would be a distraction," he muttered.

As if on cue there was a shudder and a loud bang from the starboard side of the shift. Several uniformed people rushed out of doorways and to the far side of the ship, including the foolish young man who had been guarding Quatre's cell. Figuring he didn't have any time to waste Duo hurried over to the abandoned door. He almost laughed out loud when he saw that the door "lock" was just a simple deadbolt installed on the outside. Quickly jamming the bolt open he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. It wouldn't do to get caught loitering in the hallway when the guards lost interest in whatever had caused that loud bang.

"You!" Quatre said, shocked, when he realized who had rushed into the room.

"Me," Duo nodded examining the other young man where he sat on a well cushioned sofa that ran along one wall, "Trowa said I better come back with you or not at all."

Quatre stood without hesitation, the chain that had been attached to his harness clanking as it was jostled. The move also revealed the young woman who had been sitting on his far side. She was pretty enough, with wide blue eyes and fine blond hair held back by a pair of goggles. She was dressed in a fashionably cut flight jacket and wool skirt, all under another locked flight harness. Her expression was a bit wild eyed, and Duo suddenly realized that prisoner or not, if she screamed the guards would rush in without delay.

To his credit, Quatre also seemed to realize his companion's distress and he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Miss Relena, this young man is a crew member on my ship, The Dutchman. He's here to free us."

Duo made an abortive gesture to tip a hat he wasn't wearing and laughed self consciously, "Pleased to meet you miss, I'm Duo. Now please, I haven't got much time. If you'll both let me at your harness I'll have them unlocked in two shakes of a lamb's tail."

Quatre turned immediately to present the lock that rested in between his broad shoulders. Duo swore to himself as he realized that these locks were much newer, and therefore going to require tools much more delicate than a couple of bits of pipe and some swearing. Deciding it wasn't worth waisting the time to even try, Duo fisted the straps of the flight harness and cut them with quick sure motions of his razor.

"How are we escaping?" Quatre asked as the harness fell away.

"Heero and I have a glider on top of the envelope," Duo said as he moved to free Relena.

"Two seater?" Quatre asked.

"Shi-- er, sugar!" Duo hissed just realizing the problem of fitting four people on a two person device, "Yes. You and the miss can take it. There are more gliders down in the hanger, we'll take one of those."

"Fly without a safety harness?" Relena asked, looking horrified.

"Unless you'd rather stay here we haven't got a lot of choices miss," Duo replied.

She gave him a troubled look, "No, I'm afraid we don't. I'm sorry, I realize you weren't planning on having to rescue me."

"Miss Relena," Quatre chided gently, "of course we wouldn't leave you here. Not after Kushrenada has made it clear he will discredit your reputation over this."

"Oh thank you Quatre, regardless of your father's thoughts you truly are a gentleman."

Duo had watched the polite exchanges as patiently as he could, but he was very aware of how very little time they had before the risk of getting caught became a certainty. "I'm sure there are plenty of social niceties to be observed during a rescue mission," he interrupted, "but I'm afraid we'll have to skip the rest. Come quick, we need to get you out of here."

"You said the glider was on top of the envelope?" Quatre asked.

"Yes, can you fly it?"

"It's one of The Dutchman's gliders?"

Duo nodded, and Quatre smiled, "Then it won't be a problem. Miss Relena and I will go out the window and we will await your glider from The Dutchman."

"Just don't let Mister Bossy Bloomers take off without us," Duo said, "I wouldn't put it past him."

Relena's smile was sweet, "I'm sure I can convince him to wait."

"A reasonable amount of time anyway," Quatre said.

Duo gave him a long look, he wanted to ask just what a 'reasonable' amount of time was, but he didn't think he'd like the answer. Instead he helped Quatre to open the window, and then gave Relena a boost out and steadied her as she got a grip on the rigging. "Will you be alright, miss?" he asked.

"I'm sure I'll be fine. I used to Captain my own little airyacht back home. Thank you for your help Mister Duo," and with a brief smile they were both gone around the curve of the gondola.

Duo nodded to himself then carefully cocked his stolen handgun. His ten minutes were nearly up and he wouldn't be able to count on Heero generating another mechanical failure to distract the guards. At the same time, he needed to keep Kushrenada's people from realizing their hostages had escaped for as long as he could. Not an easy task.

He pressed his ear against the door, listening for movement on the other side. He heard deep breathing, distant footsteps and some rustling. If the guard wasn't back then there were other people in the hallway that would see his escape. Giving up on that, Duo went back over to the window. He could remember where the cargo hold was, and he felt sure he could pry one of the small windows open enough to slip through. Once he was outside the ship he caught sight of Quatre and Relena making steady progress up the rigging toward the top of the airship. For a moment he was envious of their goggles as the wind stung his eyes, but then he turned his focus back to moving along the outside of the airship. The rigging on the gondola provided access between decks, but it didn't allow for easy movement from fore to aft.

Moving carefully, Duo made his way down and aft until he was clinging alongside one of the narrow windows. He was fairly sure he'd managed to locate a window over the stack of crates Heero and he had hid on before, but he couldn't be certain until he was inside. The window was not made to be opened at all, much less by a single man clinging to precarious rigging in a steady wind, but Duo was resourceful. Deciding that misdirection would be the best he could hope for, he pulled the handgun from his harness and shot out the thick glass of the window. He didn't waste time looking through or waiting to see if the crash had attracted attention. He dove headfirst through the window and rolled to a stop at the edge of the stack of crates.

He could hear cursing from the deck below him, and then another gunshot breezed past him where he lay on top of the boxes. Clearly there was someone in the hold and they were not friendly. He edged back until he was laying against the wall, then began moving toward the aft of the room, where the large bay door was. He had some half formed thought of opening the door and knocking the enemies out of the ship. Halfway there he heard a clang and a thud, followed by another round of gunshots. A quick glance behind him confirmed it, Heero had returned.

The Japanese man was no fool, and he quickly pressed himself up against the wall as well. They inched their way towards each other even as they could hear two voices down below trying to decide what to do about them. "What's going on?" Heero whispered.

"I think they figured out they had unwanted guests," Duo said.

"Where is Quatre?"

"They had him and a girl prisoner. I told them to take our glider and we'd steal one of Kushrenada's."

Heero nodded, "This will be a short fight unless you can run them out of bullets."

Duo smirked, taking the change in subject in stride. "Not that short," he said raising one of his guns, "Can you use this?"

Heero looked at the gun like it were a snake that might bite, "Un, not at all" he managed.

"Damn," Duo hissed.

"We know you're up there!" one of the people below yelled, "Surrender immediately and come out with your hands raised."

"Zechs!" Heero hissed.

"I'm not coming out there just to get shot!" Duo yelled back.

There was a murmuring sound from below, "We promise not to shoot you if you come out with your hands up."

"Will your hands be up?" Duo countered as he adjusted his holster to sit over the small of his back rather than his hip. The belt hung loose that way, and kept trying to slide back in position, but he cocked his hip and the gun stayed put.

"Of course not!" Noin yelled back, her higher voice carrying clearly.

"Holster your guns!" Duo yelled back, then he popped the chamber on the spare gun and hid the bullets into his pockets.

"Surrender your weapons first," Zechs replied.

"Fine!" Duo yelled. He silently passed his razor to Heero, who took it with a confident nod. Acting on a cue from Duo, he hid the blade in his belt. Then in a quick movement Duo threw the now empty gun off the crate.

"Watch where you throw that thing!" Noin complained, but was ignored.

Heero watched Duo carefully as the cowboy slowly stood up with his hands held away from his sides. He motioned for Heero to stand as well, and the other slave warily came to his feet. "We're coming down unarmed," Duo said, "you'd better keep your word."

To Heero's surprise Zechs and Noin had holstered their guns, though they kept their hands on the grips in readiness. Carefully both men walked down the steps of crates, being sure to never turn their backs on the enemies. "What are you planing to do with us?" Heero found himself asking.

"What wouldn't we do with you?" Zechs replied, "A good boiler slave is hard to find, and as The Dutchman is still airborne I take it you two managed to repair all the trouble Trant caused."

"Something like that," Duo agreed, "but I doubt you'd get either of us back in a locked harness that easily."

Zechs smirked below his goggles, "No, not easily."

Duo shifted his feet a bit more, looking for an opening. He was a fair gunman, not an expert or much of a trick shooter, but there wasn't a cowboy alive who hadn't practiced shooting from the hip until it became second nature. Duels at noon or dawn didn't happen daily, but they were common enough that a good cattleman could expect to run into at least one in his life. Duo had never been the type to go looking for a fire fight, but he'd liked the way a good display of gunmanship would earn a free beer. If he did well this time he'd have a bit more than a glass of bad brew to show for it. If he missed... well, he really didn't want to miss.

His opportunity came a moment later when Zechs took a step toward Heero, looming over the shorter man. For his part, Heero met his eyes steadily and didn't flinch at all, though his left hand tightened over where he'd hidden the razor in the belt of his jacket. Something about the move must have surprised Noin because she took her eyes off Duo to follow the confrontation between Zechs and Heero. The moment of inattention was all Duo needed. In a smooth motion he rolled his holster back over his hip, drew the gun, and fired.

Noin staggered back, clutching the shoulder of her gun arm and swearing. Zechs reared back, one hand fumbling to pull his gun from its shoulder holster, but he was drawn up short by a sharp kick to the knee by Heero.

"What are you --" Zechs snarled as his leg crumpled underneath him, but was cut off as Heero dealt another hard blow to the taller man's shoulder, numbing his gun arm completely.

"Shut up, Zechs," Heero said.

Then the whole ship shuddered as it took a heavy blow. "Quatre and Relena must have made it clear," Heero said, his eyes narrowing, "we're out of time Duo!"

"Grab some rope and get Zechs tied down!" Duo yelled as he grabbed Noin by the injured shoulder and half-marched, half-dragged her over to the far side of the room.

"You want me to what?" Heero asked as he struggled to drag the tall blond over where Duo had dumped the injured Noin.

"Oh for the love of --" Duo muttered, "get over here and tie Noin to the crates."

Heero nodded, gratefully passing Zechs off to the taller cowboy. Zechs was hard to manage, he kicked out with his good leg, and while there wasn't as much difference in their heights, he stilled outweighed Duo by at least half. But Duo had honed his upper body wrangling cattle and shoveling coal and he wasn't going to be daunted. He wasted no time on gentleness as he hogtied the other man.

By the time he had finished Heero had done a fair job of lashing Noin's good arm to a crate and moved back down the deck. "I'm opening the hatch," he called back.

"Ready!" Duo shouted before he leaned closer to Zechs so that Heero wouldn't overhear what he said next. "Now I'm sure you two could get out of this," another shudder of the ship interrupted him, "but it'll be a close call before The Dutchman blows you out of the air. I'd recommend one of you get untied and call for an abandon ship, but I'm a kind soul. Heero would probably love to see you all go down with the airship."

"You bastard," Zechs snarled, and Noin echoed something equally unflattering, but it was lost in a rush of wind as Heero finished winching the hatch open.

"Duo!" The boiler slave called.

"Have a nice day," Duo nodded to his prisoners with a cocky grin on his face as he turned to help Heero push one of the gliders to the launch position. Then Duo settled once more behind Heero as he double checked the glider was ready, and then kicked the chock that held them in the ship. Moments later they were launched out over open space once more, circling the two airships to face The Dutchman.

"Damnit!" Heero yelled, "The Dutchman's too high, we won't gain enough altitude to land without a thermal."

Duo eyed The Dutchman for a moment. The gondola of the other ship hung below the envelop like a child from a balloon string. They would need to gain at least forty feet of altitude and even then they would be scraping bottom when they landed in the narrow hatch way they had left through. Duo ignored the hatch for now, looking for an alternate point of entry. There were hooks for tether lines that descended about five feet from the bottom of the ship. With an eye to those, he quickly measured off the length of rope he had pilfered from Kushrenada's ship and checked the knot in his lasso.

"Can you get us near the hooks?" he shouted to Heero.

Heero looked back over his shoulder for a moment and then nodded once.

Duo barely caught the glance, he was too busy building up the momentum he was going to need to catch a narrow hook on a moving target while in a high wind. It wasn't an impossible move, but it wasn't a music hall rope trick either. But Duo soon found that his time on The Dutchman shoving coal and wrenching on pipes was working in his favor. His shoulders were stronger than ever before, and Heero was a steady pilot.

The Japanese man turned them in a circle, having found a weak thermal that was enough for them to build a bit of height. As they drew close to The Dutchman, Duo let the lasso fly only to have the loop fall short and miss. Swearing, he reeled the rope in quickly and prepared to try again.

As they rounded to face Kushrenada's ship, he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of one eye, and then the fore end of Kushrenada's envelope began burning. A second later he caught the report of cannon fire: The Dutchman had fatally shot the larger ship. Duo watched wide eyed as the fire quickly traveled along the huge zeppelin, devouring everything in its path. He made out a few small figures jumping from the wreckage and opening parachutes, but he doubted most of the occupants would make it out alive. It was a sobering sight.

If Heero was affected by the stunningly fast collapse of the enemy dirigible he gave no sign, but instead he maneuvered their glider above the burning wreckage. It felt like he took the glider straight into a hot oven, and they shot up through the air gaining altitude rapidly. Unfortunately the hot air current was also blowing them further from The Dutchman.

As soon as they were high enough, Heero turned them back toward their home ship, only to see the hatchway they had used was being closed up. "Damnit!" He swore, freeing a hand momentarily to point out what had happened to Duo.

The cowboy just narrowed his eyes, "Bring us in close again."

Heero nodded and brought the glider around. They were much higher this time, above the top of the gondola, and he wondered what Duo was going to try and catch with his rope. For his own part Duo had sighted some lanterns attached to the envelope of The Dutchman, and he figured he could catch one of those without problem.

"Bring us in straight against The Dutchman," he yelled as he got the rope spinning.

Heero nodded and adjusted their course appropriately. A moment later Duo let the lasso fly, this time hooking his target easily. The rope played out of his hands quickly, burning his unprotected palms, but he held tight to the end and instinctively gripped the glider more tightly between his legs. The result was an illustration of pendular motion as the lasso went taut and the glider with her riders swung in towards the ship.

Heero was the first that realized what would happen next, and turned around to grab Duo tightly by the waist and kick the glider away. The glider dropped and went crashing through one of the portholes on the upper deck of The Dutchman while the two young men swung into the gap between gondola and envelope and rolled to a stop just before they went off the far side. There was a long moment when neither of them dared move, hardly believing that they were still alive despite the stunt they had just pulled.

Then Heero managed to get himself upright, and he yanked Duo up after him by his shirt. "That was crazy you God be damned lunatic!" He shouted.

Duo was grinning too hard to care, he gave Heero a quick kiss, "Crazy, but it worked!"

Still grumbling Heero helped Duo make his way across the swinging deck of the dirigible and to the side where they had knocked out a window that would allow them entry. It was good that he held tight to the taller man as their close escape seemed to have made him drunk. He staggered across the deck and laughed loudly at the slightest provocation. It only took them a minute or two to cross the deck and swing through the window after the glider, but it felt much longer for the young boiler slave as he tried to keep Duo on course.

When they made their way into The Dutchman, carefully stepping over the broken glass and the wreckage of the glider, they were greeted by Wufei. The Chinese man had a gun in his good hand and a pair of distance viewing goggles pushed back on his forehead. He smiled slightly to see them.

"I see you finally made it," he said.

"Oh man what a ride!" Duo grinned, "Hey Wufei, why didn't you tell me how awesome gliders were?"

Wufei raised an eyebrow, "I wasn't expecting you to be using one."

"Did Quatre make it back?" Heero broke in.

Wufei nodded, "Everyone's here, and for now everyone's all right, but you'd better come along to the bridge. Capitan Howard is less than pleased."

Less than pleased turned out to be a gross understatement. The Capitan was fuming and yelling at the top of his lungs. He was angry at Duo and Heero for sneaking off, angry at Quatre for getting caught, Wufei for not stopping Kushrenada, and at Trowa for refusing orders when he told him to leave the enemy zeppelin and stay on course.

The Capitan was leaning over Trowa where he sat at the center of a mass of ropes and rigging, calmly flying the airship despite the tirade going on around him. Howard was ignoring the slender young man in favor of screaming at Quatre who stood protectively near the pilot's side.

"And on top of all that, there's a woman on my ship! Tell me Winner, is this your idea of a damn joke?!"

"Hardly," Quatre said as Heero and Duo stumbled into the room, "but it wouldn't have been polite to abandon her in Kushrenada's hands."

"It might well have been, because first chance I get I'm going to throw her over -- Ah Wufei," the old man stopped when he realized who had come into the room, "I see you found our missing slaves. What the hell caused that crash midship?"

"When they discovered the hanger hatch was closed, Heero and Duo decided to land their glider through your cabin window," Wufei answered.

"What?!" Howard snarled, "I'll take every cent for fixing that window right out of your damn hides! Just because you haven't got wages to dock don't think I won't make you pay for it!"

The sheer fury of the captain was enough to sober Duo's drunken feelings of accomplishment and rile his own answering anger. "The hell you will! If you think for one minute we're going to happily go back to being chained in that closet you can jump out the damn window. I've even opened it for you!"

Howard rounded on him, "If you think for one minute I'm going to let a God damn punk like you give me orders on my ship you can start praying for wings because we'll see if you can fly, buddy. We'll just see if you can fly!"

"You'll do no such thing," Relena cried, throwing herself between the two men, "This man and his friend saved my life, and I will not stand by while you punish him for his heroism!"

"I wouldn't get into the middle of this, missy," Howard said, "I'm not too pleased about you being here either."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Miss Relena," Wufei cut in, moving to stand next to the young woman, "To deny the service that Heero and Duo have provided to you and your crew would be a dishonor of the worst kind."

"Besides," Trowa said, "we still need someone to work the boiler room, unless you want to shovel coal for the rest of the trip."

"I refuse to take this insubordination!" Howard yelled, "I am your Capitan and you will obey me!"

"No Mister Howard," Relena said as she casually reached over and lifted Wufei's gun from him, "you are not the Capitan because this is a mutiny."

The room was filled with a chorus of disbelief, but the young woman's hand was steady as she kept the older man in her sights. "Really Mister Howard, how loyal do you think your crew is after the way you've treated them? You're grossly understaffed, which means they are overworked. You're ready to throw them overboard for showing initiative and excellent moral fiber, which means --"

"Boiler slaves are not supposed to show initiative!" Howard interrupted.

Relena continued smoothly, with hardly an eye blink, "Slaves or not, I haven't seen any indication that they're stupid, so I can only presume they will listen reasonably when I offer myself as an alternative Capitan. And I begin by offering them their freedom, provided they will help us arrive safely at the next dock. From there I am sure I can adequately re-crew this vessel, and so they would be free to leave."

"You mean that?" Duo asked.

"I am Lady Relena Darlian Peacecraft, princess infanta of the Sanc Kingdom, and I give you my word of honor."

"I'm with her," Duo said, with a quick cock of his head toward the young woman.

Relena smiled thinly, "And the rest of you?"

"I take it you have no problems with female crew members?" Wufei asked.

"Of course not."

"And romantic liaisons with other crew members?" Trowa asked.

Relena glanced slyly between the pilot and Quatre, "Entirely a non-issue, I assure you."

"I'm in," Wufei said.

"Me too," Trowa agreed.

"A-aa," Heero said after a curious look toward Duo.

"Mister Winner?" Relena asked.

Quatre shrugged, "I suppose you can Capitan my ship for a bit. It might be a nice change."

"Your ship?" Duo asked, surprised.

"Why yes," Quatre nodded. "I'm not the Capitan, but I do own The Dutchman outright, and as the ship's owner only my vote actually counts. Your service over the past four years has been commendable Howard, but I agree with Miss Relena that a change of management is in order.

"Miss Relena, thank you for offering your services. I hereby appoint you acting Capitan of The Dutchman. We will complete the necessary paperwork at a registry at the next port."

Relena turned to Quatre and gave him a quick curtsy before leveling the gun at him, "I want it clear, Mister Winner, that I take the lives of my crew seriously and I will not tolerate further favoritism when it comes to matters of safety."

Everyone in the room held their breath at the sudden change, but Trowa broke the silence by laughing. "She's got you bang to rights Quatre. You wanted to whisk me away from that ship so fast you nearly left Duo and Heero behind," he smiled up at the blond man, "You'll need to be more thoughtful in the future."

For a moment it seemed that Quatre might protest, but at the look from Trowa he sighed and seemed to thaw, "You're right, of course. It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Relena said primly, "Now, I believe I saw Captain Kushrenada and some of his senior officers paraglide from that wreckage. We can assume they will be following us as soon as they are able."

"Duo, Heero," Trowa said, "I need some more pressure to the sails. We're tacking against the wind and it's exhausting."

Duo frowned, "Can't you take a break for a bit? You haven't stopped tugging on one rope or another since I walked in here."

"We haven't got another pilot," the slender man said, "unless you'd like to train as one?"

Duo eyed the modified harness Trowa was wearing. Instead of a single chain attaching at the back at least two dozen ropes came in from various parts of the cabin and attached to the leather straps winding around the pilot's chest. Additionally his feet moved over a set of what looked like organ peddles, changing the readings on the array of gauges that spread in an arch around the pilot's seat.

"No thanks," he said, "I don't mind spending some time in the boiler room, but I'm not going to be tied up again in a hurry."

"Too bad," Quatre said, "You'd look good in the harness."

"Is that so?" Heero asked, surprising Duo with the growl in his voice.

Quatre seemed unfazed; he smirked at Heero, "Then again so would you. How about it Heero? Want to learn to pilot?"

Duo was watching his companion closely, so he saw immediately the look of longing that flashed across the other man's face before he turned away abruptly and stormed out of the room. Duo looked back at the others and shrugged. "I'll go talk to him," he said.

"Don't forget to get me that pressure," Trowa said, "I'd rather not make an emergency landing anywhere near here."

"Will do," the cowboy called over his shoulder as he left.

Heero wasn't hard to find. He'd made his way down to the boiler room and was shoveling some coal into the distressingly low fire. Duo watched him for a minute, and then he unbuttoned his shirt and shoved it over the speaking tube; he didn't want everyone on the bridge to hear this conversation.

Without saying anything he grabbed the spare shovel and started moving coal. They worked in silence for several minutes, and soon enough the coalfire was burning merrily and the gauges were reading as they should. Duo put his shovel away and turned to look at Heero again. He couldn't see the last remaining marks from the lashing from his angle. Heero was standing silhouetted against the blaze of the fire, leaning on his shovel like it was a staff, and staring into the flames. The braided cowboy was abruptly reminded of that first day on the shift, when he had still been refusing to lift a finger to help someone he saw as his captor. But now all of that had changed.

"You didn't have to come down here," he said at last, "I'm sure Trowa would have been happy to teach you to pilot."

Heero flinched and turned to face him, "Aa, maybe," he said.

Duo let him drift back into silence for another minute before he lost patience, "What's wrong Heero?"

"Did you --" he began, but then hesitated and started over, "When we reach port you'll be looking for a ship to take you back home."

"You make that sound like a done deal," Duo said, "I was under the impression you wanted me here."

Heero's grip tightened on the shovel haft, "I do not want to be a burden to tie you down."

He couldn't help himself, Duo chuckled and rubbed a tired hand over his eyes, "Is that what this is about? You think I'd rather just rush off and leave you behind?"

"I can't make you stay here."

"There isn't a damn thing in Heaven or Earth that can make me stay where I don't want to," Duo said.

"I know," Heero said, "so when you leave, would you mind if I go with you?"

Duo gave him a long look, "Yes, I would mind. "

Heero flinched and turned away, making the lingering bruises on his back show.

The braided cowboy gave a growl of frustration, and tugged at his bangs, "Damn I'm making a mess of this. Heero, please look at me."

Slowly, with a scowl more fierce than the red of the coal fire, Heero turned around but he didn't say anything.

"Heero, I know you want to learn to fly. I can see it written all over your face," he moved closer and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "and I don't ever want to see you give up something you want that badly without a fight. Not for me, not for no one."

"But you will resent me," Heero burst out.

"Heero, how could I ever resent you for wanting to fly?" Duo said. "You're the one thing on this damn ship I care about, and you never ask anyone for a damn thing, except maybe five more minutes of sleep.

"Now I want to be very clear about this," Duo took Heero's face in both of his hands, making sure the other man couldn't look away and hide from what he was about to say. "I don't have a home to go back to -- I'm not missing no one, and no one is missing me. But if I left here without you I'd be walking away from the best thing that's ever happened to me. And if I took you away from the sky I'd be no better than Zechs or those people who slapped you in chains.

"So unless it would upset you, I want to stay here, on this ship and with you, until we get sick of taking orders and go buy a ship of our own."

"Duo," Heero said.

"I love you," Duo said, "and I want you to be happy."

Heero gave a smile that was both hopeful and sad, "Then you need to be happy too, Duo. And I can't ask you to stay here and work the boiler if it will make you miserable."

"Heero, I don't care about shoveling coal for a living. I just want it to be my choice. And my choice is to be here, with you, while you learn to fly."

"You'll learn to fly too," Heero said suddenly, "I'll teach you to use a glider."

Duo laughed and gave Heero a kiss, "Well in that case, I don't see the down side. Why are we getting all mopey?"

Heero laughed too, "I'm not sure. Maybe we're just idiots."

"Idiots in love?"

"Mm," Heero agreed, "in love."

"And as lovely as this scene is," Wufei said from the doorway, "Your soup is getting cold and Trowa's cursing a blue streak because he can't raise you two on the tubes."

Duo and Heero looked at each other, both laughing at the besotted expression on the other's face.

"Err... Oops?"