fic - two chances : 3

Two Chances : 3

"Ah, good, you're back.  Mika postponed the debrief till four o'clock, though."

"Hm."

Duo hardly expected Heero to hang on his every word, but he put that sound of acknowledgement at 'slightly distracted'.  "Everything alright with Hook?"

"Hm?  Yes, of course.  He'll probably be back to full duty in a month or so."

"Oh.  Took you longer than I thought it would, to check up on him."

Heero seated himself at his desk, and turned his chair toward Duo rather than waking his workstation up.  "Conversation... took an unexpectedly grim turn."

Duo put on an appropriately attentive expression and waited for him to continue.

"He thanked me for not leaving him behind.  Which... honestly took me a minute to figure out because... why would I have left him behind?  Granted, his injury would have put him at a severe disadvantage, had any of the gunrunner's allies circled around to take him, but on its own, it wouldn't have been serious with proper treatment."

"His first injury in the field, I'm guessing?"

Heero tilted his head in acknowledgment.  "I'll allow for a certain amount of inexperience to increase his anxiety.  It was still puzzling that he thought I would leave him behind.  Have I done anything lately that would warrant a lone wolf reputation?"

Duo opened his mouth to immediately deny it, but then he had to stop and consider things from the point of view of people that were not so familiar with him.  "Hmmm... you jumped out that window a couple of months ago?"

It took Heero a few seconds to place the incident.  Such things did not particularly stand out in his daily life.  "That was not a lone wolf action.  That was a flanking maneuver."

"Mm, yeah, I don't think Bartlett saw it that way at the time."

"And there was a fire escape."

"Hm, yep, pretty sure he didn't know that at the time."

Heero's little glare seemed to indicate that he did not hold himself responsible for the miscomprehension of others.  "Even so.  There's a world of difference between running off on your own, and running off to leave someone to die."

"Well, you know, I'm pretty sure Hook thinks you're a badass.  Well, I mean, obviously you are a badass, but like, mythical status."

Heero raised an eyebrow, prompting for clarification.

"And, some people equate that sort of behavior with that sort of mythical status.  So badass, you'd do anything to get the job done."

"The mythical badass sounds like a dick."

Duo chuckled in agreement.  "A real badass doesn't need to pull dick moves to get the job done, eh?"

Heero rolled his eyes just a little.  "I guess that must have been it... In any case, I ended up in an unplanned discussion on the factors that would go into high-stakes decision-making in the field.  Death is permanent, and there's no way to just die halfway.  If you take someone's life, you won't have a chance to undo that decision."  He shrugged.  "I'm guessing he hasn't killed anyone, either."

"Yeah, pretty sure.  Huh, I wonder if your little lecture would make him think you're even more of a badass."

"It wouldn't make me less mythical?"

Duo smiled.  "Well, I think you're even more of a non-mythical badass, anyway."






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