Boot Camp Part 5
Obstacles
The five o'clock wakeup call sent all four boys tumbling from their bunks, yawning and stretching in the pale pre-dawn light.
"This is inhuman!" Duo grumbled, wincing as he flexed his arms, feeling a definite ache from all the previous day's exercise.
Heero just gave him a brief glare and went to rummage through his foot locker for a clean uniform.
Duo found his gaze irresistibly drawn to the view the other boy presented while bending over his trunk, and the thief from L2 couldn't help the wistful smile that crossed his face. If only Yuy weren't a total pain in the ass... And speaking of his ass... Duo forcibly pulled his thoughts away from his teammate, instead crossing the room to the bathroom door.
Quatre met him there, giving him his best blue eyed puppy dog look. "Mind if I go first, since that hair of yours takes all day?"
"It does not!" Duo retorted. "I can brush it out and re-braid in record time."
"But you don't need the mirror for that..."
While they were debating, Trowa walked past without a word, grabbing the door from Duo's hand and slamming it shut behind him.
"Fink!" Duo grumbled, turning away and going over to his foot locker to fish around for his comb.
Within ten minutes, all four boys had used the small bathroom and headed over to the exercise yard for calisthenics. Although they didn't bring up the subject of the previous night's argument, they stayed together through the morning workout and the two-mile run.
It wasn't until they were in the barracks getting ready to shower and change that the issue came up again. Duo started to walk out with his clothes and towels in hand, and Heero casually put an arm across the door. "Wait up, Maxwell. We'll all walk over together."
Duo stiffened, turning to meet the cold blue eyes. "I told you. I can take care of myself."
"Really? Then explain that bruise on your face."
Indigo eyes widened, and Duo unconsciously reached a hand to his face. "I...fell."
"Into Kushrenada's fist?" asked Heero evenly. "What's up with you and him? Why's he got it in for you?"
Duo glanced over his shoulder at Trowa, and then looked back at Heero. "Maybe it's none of your business," he sneered, echoing Heero's exact words from the night before. He pointedly lifted Heero's arm out of his way, ducking under it and heading for the showers.
Quatre had his stuff together by then, and darted after Duo; Heero and Trowa brought up the rear. The four boys from the previous day kept to themselves in both the locker room and the shower; a single icy glare from Heero saw to that. And within half an hour, the boys had showered, changed, and made their way to the dining hall without incident.
Mid-afternoon found the inmates in formation, grouped by teams, with each team having a corporal standing in front.
"As you can see," Captain Chang explained, stalking smoothly across in front of the assembly. "Each of your teams has a liaison. These men are all corporals in the Corps, chosen because they are closest to your ages, and have been through boot camp recently enough to recall the basics of the program. I'll give you exactly five minutes for a team meeting, and then we'll begin obstacle course training."
The corporal in front of Team Wing turned to face them. "I'm Corporal Carter--for expediency just call me Carter most of the time." He looked at Heero, studying the grave-faced boy. "Yuy, you'll be the leader of Team Wing."
Duo rolled his eyes, wondering who died and made Heero God. Quatre caught the expression and smirked back.
"Based on your aptitude test scores," Carter continued, "Maxwell's best area is stealth and infiltration..."
Oh yeah...all that breaking and entering sure paid off.
"Barton should excel at infiltration and weapons... and Winner has strategic planning down to a science. I suggest, Yuy, that you play to your teammates' strengths when taking on the challenges the Captain sets up." He eyed each of them carefully. "I'd like to think I got lucky being assigned to this team, but Captain Chang sometimes has a--strange--sense of humor."
"Oh, and I thought it was just that he had a stick up his ass," Duo muttered under his breath.
Carter laughed unexpectedly. "Sounds like you've met our good Captain," he said with a grin. "That was what we called him back in basic...or, rather, behind his back, in basic."
"What? 'Stick-up-his-ass' Chang?" Duo grinned back. "Not to his face?"
"Of course not," Carter assured him. "We muttered it to ourselves when he was making us do forced marches in hundred-degree heat and eighty percent humidity--the bastard." He shook his head. "But he's the best trainer there is. And lucky for you kids, he's mellowed."
Heero gave a slight chuckle at the thought of a "mellow" Wufei Chang, and all heads turned to him in surprise. "What?" he demanded, trying to force his customary scowl back into place.
"It's just strange to hear you laugh," Quatre spoke up. "You're usually so--reserved."
"Y'mean anal," Duo murmured under his breath. But at the same time he was looking at Heero with a slightly bemused expression, thinking what an absolutely throaty, sexy laugh the blue-eyed boy had, and how unfortunate it was that those good looks were wasted on a totally straight guy. "I hate my life," sighed the braided boy quietly, drawing his gaze back to Corporal Carter.
Quatre heard the sigh, and cast an enquiring glance at his friend, but Captain Chang's voice interrupted before he could say anything.
"Back in formation!"
The boys straggled back into their previous ranks, making at least a half-hearted attempt at standing at attention.
"Any volunteers for the first run through the obstacle course?"
Heero's hand shot up at once, and all three of his teammates stared at him in obvious amazement and total dismay.
"Whoa! Wait a sec!" Duo blurted. "Since when do you get to speak for all of us?"
"Since I was made team leader," Heero said calmly, that faintly derisive smirk apparent once again.
"I didn't vote for you," Duo asserted.
"Fortunately, your vote wasn't required," Heero sneered back.
Captain Chang had walked over and was standing, tapping one foot impatiently. "Yuy--if you have finished taking commentary from your subordinate--?"
"Yes, sir," Heero assured him, darting a last, deadly glare at Duo before facing their commander. "We're ready."
"Very well...the course is as follows...and pay attention. I will not repeat myself." He outlined the order of obstacles quickly, gesturing to a series of rope ladders, walls, tunnels and various other challenges. "You'll finish up with the crawl under barbed wire and hand-over-hand through the monkey bars." He smiled, but there was a positively evil glint in his eyes. "Any questions?"
"How are we timed, sir? Individually, or as a group?" Heero asked.
"Your team time will be that of the slowest man," Chang explained.
"Um--sir?" Duo asked rather hesitantly. "How high is that wall?"
"Twenty-five feet." The dark eyes gleamed dangerously. "Scared of heights, Maxwell?" He stepped closer, before Duo could reply. "It seems to me that a second-story man such as yourself would be quite comfortable with them."
Duo blushed and looked at the ground. "Ah--yeah. Not a problem," he mumbled.
"And Barton--I expect you to excel at this," Chang added, glancing at Trowa. All eyes turned to the auburn-haired boy, who shrugged almost apologetically.
"Uh--yeah--I worked in a circus."
Duo smirked. "We are so gonna ace this test!"
"Two minutes to prep," Chang informed them. "Oh, and by the way, the last place team will do KP duty for a week."
"There is such a thing?" Duo asked in amazement.
The Chinese officer smiled slyly. "Oh yes, Maxwell...perhaps I should ask how good you are at peeling potatoes."
Duo glared, and subsided into a rather sulky silence.
Heero pulled his three teammates into a quick huddle. "Since this is our first run, we'll keep it simple. First man through any obstacle waits for the last...second man advances to the next obstacle, but doesn't start until the third is enroute. That way we'll always be close together. Understood?"
The other boys nodded, starting to get into the exercise and feel a little surge of adrenaline.
They proceeded to the starting line as Captain Chang looked down at his stopwatch. "Ready? Go!"
They sprinted towards the first obstacle, Trowa's long legs getting him there first, and with acrobatic skills learned from years of circus life, he climbed the rope ladder as nimbly as a monkey.
Heero was a close second, and Duo and Quatre were hot on his heels.
They landed on the other side to find Trowa waiting, as Heero had instructed.
Heero and Duo dashed for the next obstacle, while Trowa and Quatre brought up the rear. The skinny log bridge barely slowed them down, and all four were still together when they reached the wall.
Going hand over hand up the rope, Heero made it to the top first, with Duo and Trowa almost even, and Quatre less than a yard behind. The braided boy let out a whoop as he dropped the last ten feet to the sandy ground, landing light as a feather and laughing as Heero descended more conservatively.
"Baka!" muttered the team leader, as he ran for the next challenge.
Duo followed the plan, watching as Trowa landed with cat-like grace and ran after Heero, and then giving Quatre an encouraging slap on the shoulder as they raced to catch up.
Heero swung across a man-made pool of water, hanging onto the end of the rope until Trowa was in position to catch it as it swung back. The auburn-haired boy followed, and then Quatre and Duo joined them. All four were basically even as they began the crawl under the barbed wire, but Trowa and Heero quickly pulled into the lead.
"Ah shit!"
Heero glanced back and cursed under his breath. "Damn it, Maxwell!"
Duo's braid had caught on one particularly long barb, and the long-haired boy was trying to twist onto his back so he could disentangle it.
"Trowa...you and Quatre keep going!" Heero urged, doubling back to help his teammate. "Maxwell, I swear I'm going to cut your hair while you sleep!" Heero swore, reaching the other boy's side and grabbing for the braid.
"Do it and die," Duo snarled back, carefully picking at the strands tangled in the wire. "Nobody touches the hair, Yuy! Go on ahead...I can get this."
"It's a team exercise, Maxwell. You have to finish with us," Heero retorted. He stubbornly took hold of the braid and started tugging against the wire.
"Easy there! You'll make split ends--!"
Heero finally wrapped the braid around his hand and yanked it free, causing several strands to snap. He shoved the braid down the back of Duo's shirt, his face inches from the other boy. "That thing's a menace, Maxwell. Next time plan ahead!"
"Fuck you, too," Duo growled back, resuming his crawl through the wire. But his face was flushed with humiliation at having held the team back, and he redoubled his efforts to try to regain the time he'd lost.
Trowa and Quatre were cooling their heels by the final barricade as Heero and Duo darted through the tire obstacle.
The braided boy didn't say a word, but ducked his head in embarrassment as they all started through the monkey bars. Halfway across Quatre lost a handhold, but Trowa was close enough to reach over and help him recover.
Then they were across, and sprinting for the finish line, sliding to a stop in front of Captain Chang, who was eyeing his stopwatch and frowning.
"That was almost five minutes," he said, shaking his head. He gave Duo a hard look from his dark eyes. "In a real firefight, you'd have cost your team leader his life, Maxwell."
Duo glared back, face flushed with exertion and shame. "Then I guess it's lucky this is only pretend," he snarled, covering his embarrassment with anger.
"Take seats in the bleachers while the other teams go," ordered the Captain, giving Heero a long look and a shake of his head as he passed.
Duo looked back and forth, finally fixing his gaze on Heero. "What was that about?"
"Nothing."
"Why'd Chang give you that look?"
"None of your business, Maxwell."
"Yeah, it is, if it's about me," Duo growled back.
"Well, maybe this isn't about you," Heero retorted, walking past Duo and taking a seat in the bleachers, where they'd have a good view of the other teams running the obstacle course.
Quatre gave Duo a reassuring smile. "C'mon...let's see how the others do." The blonde looked almost as somber as Duo felt, and they both trudged wearily over to sit with their teammates. Heero and Trowa were talking quietly, critiquing the next group's performance on the obstacle course, and didn't even look up as Duo and Quatre plunked down next to them.
"Ever feel totally useless?" Duo muttered to his friend.
"Well, I was the slowest."
"Not if you count the time I wasted tangled in the wire," Duo sighed. He pulled his braid back out of his shirt, examining the torn strands ruefully.
Heero caught the motion out of the corner of his eye, and gave Duo a positively deadly glare. In response, Duo flipped him the finger and went back to smoothing his precious braid.
After an hour of teams' running the course and an hour of Captain Chang's assessment of each team's performance, the boys were released for the rest of the afternoon to pursue individual activities.
Duo and Quatre ended up walking several paces behind their teammates as they trudged back to the barracks.
"Well at least we weren't last," Quatre said with forced cheer.
Duo sighed. "But did you hear our fearless leader? 'A third-place finish is unacceptable.' Hell, he's the one who volunteered us to go first! The others got to learn from our mistakes."
"You mean yours," Heero said over his shoulder.
Duo broke stride, looking at the team leader in shock. Even Quatre winced at the ice-blue glare Heero shot the braided boy. "Hey, Heero, it was a first try, okay?" he said in a conciliatory tone.
Duo just turned on his heel, heading in the opposite direction.
"Maxwell...where are you going?" Trowa called after him.
Duo made an obscene gesture over his shoulder and kept walking. He headed for the commissary, figuring no one would be there this time of day. Right now he just needed to be away from his teammates...and one in particular. When he saw a bench in the shade behind the building, he walked over and threw himself onto it, burying his face in his hands.
Fuck Heero Yuy and his high and mighty attitude! Must be pretty easy to assign blame when you think you're perfect. The trouble was, on some level, Duo agreed with him. He'd screwed up and it had cost the whole team. What's worse, he felt like it had cost him the chance to gain Heero's respect. And he wasn't even sure why he wanted it in the first place. He closed his eyes, sighing deeply.
"Having a bad day, gorgeous?" came a taunting voice.
Duo looked up to see the same four boys from the other day in the shower. Their team leader, Austin, stood with arms folded, green eyes narrowed with malice.
Aw, fuck me! This day just keeps getting better and better. "Well I am now," Duo sneered, realizing that he was not only alone, but outnumbered. Then his street rat survival instincts kicked in, and he stood up so he had room to maneuver. "But kicking your asses should fix that."
The team leader laughed, his gaze dropping to the long braid down Duo's back. "You couldn't even make it through a little barbed wire, pretty boy. All we'd have to do is pull your hair."
"Hair pulling?" Indigo eyes narrowed. "And you called me 'girly'?" Duo scoffed. "What's next? Slapping and biting?"
"Only if you want me to," Austin said with a leer.
"In your dreams," Duo hissed back, easing into a loose fighting stance.
Captain Chang's voice cut through their conversation. "Is there a problem here, Pritchard?"
"Uh, no sir," Austin said quickly.
"They were just leaving," Duo added, narrowing his eyes at the other boy.
"I won't keep them then," the Captain commented. "But I'd like a word with you, Maxwell."
The other boys scattered and headed away, casting resentful glances back at their triumphant quarry. Duo resisted the impulse to stick his tongue out.
Instead, he turned an expectant gaze to Captain Chang.
The Chinese man leveled those cold, dark eyes at him. "I don't care if you fail miserably at this camp, Maxwell. But don't you dare take Heero Yuy down with you! He deserves this chance."
"And I don't?" Duo asked bitterly. The last thing he needed was for the soldier to compound the guilt he already felt.
"Not from what I've seen," Chang snarled back.
Duo crossed his arms, glaring back. "And why should I care what you think?"
"Because I am your only chance!"
"Then obviously I'm screwed," Duo retorted. "Between you and K..."
"I told you not to compare us!" Chang bit out sharply. "Whatever you think, we're not in league. I'm not here to undermine your training and ship your butt off to the L2 penal colony."
"Sure, and telling me Yuy'd be dead if it was a real scenario is supposed to bolster my confidence?"
"It was supposed to wake you up, Maxwell. This isn't a game."
Duo rolled his eyes. "Sure it is. If I play nice, I get to keep my butt out of prison a few months longer."
Captain Chang gave Duo such a hard look from those dark, angry eyes that the boy almost winced. "You overlook the fact that you could also achieve a great deal more. This is an opportunity, instead of the punishment you so richly deserve, thief."
"Oh, name-calling?" Duo asked in amazement. "The great Captain Chang has stooped to name-calling?"
Wufei glared at him. "I simply state the facts, Maxwell. You were convicted of stealing...hence you are a thief."
"And yet you say I have a chance to get into your precious Mobile Suit Corps Academy," Duo scoffed. "You want thieves in your Corps?"
"Former thieves," Wufei clarified. "Completing this camp will take more moral fiber than you realize." He gave the boy a scornful look. "Probably more than you have."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Duo sneered, putting on a show of bravado in spite of how much the insult stung. "But, y'know what? I couldn't care less about going to your damned academy. I'm here because it kept me from going to L2 prison. And that's the only reason. So excuse me if I don't give a shit how well Yuy's team does."
"I will not," Captain Chang snarled. "I swear, if you purposely mess this up for him, I'll haul you to L2 personally. I expect you to at least try! And then, if you don't want to go to the Academy, fine. You don't have to. But respect your teammates enough to allow them the choice."
Duo glared at him. "Are you finished, sir?"
"For now," replied the Captain. "Dismissed, Maxwell."
Duo turned and started walking towards the barracks area. "Yeah...you dismissed me the first day we met, Chang," he muttered sourly. He'd pretty much decided his day could get no worse...first the mess on the obstacle course, and now a thorough dressing-down by the camp commander...not to mention the close call with Austin and his pals. "Sucks to be you, Maxwell," he sighed, glaring at the ground as he walked. He was so riveted on the dirt that he almost passed the barracks.
The sound of a throat clearing made him stop and look up, to see Heero leaning on the wall outside the door. "Lost, Maxwell?"
"I don't need this right now, Yuy," he snarled. "Just back the fuck off."
The blue eyes raked him up and down, and he could almost see a sneer on Heero's lips. And nice lips they were, at that...not too fat or thin...perfectly shaped, and obviously kissable beyond belief. If only they weren't attached to the biggest bastard in the camp. "Where were you? We need to review our plan for tomorrow's run through the obstacle course."
"Well excuse me," Duo shot back, keeping his angry gaze locked on Heero's eyes instead of those lips. "After your candid assessment of my skills, or lack thereof, I figured you didn't really need me. So I took a stroll around camp and got cornered by Austin's pack of jackals and then soundly berated by our dear Captain Chang himself." His voice rose with each word. "I've fucking had enough for one day, Yuy!"
Heero frowned at him. "What do you mean 'cornered?' What did Austin's team do?"
Duo walked up until he was almost toe to toe with his team leader. "What difference does it make, Yuy? So long as I don't fuck up the obstacle course again, what do you care what happens to me?"
"We're teammates," Heero replied stiffly, scowling.
"Sure...whatever," Duo drawled, rolling his eyes. He started past Heero, but a hand shot out and caught his arm.
"What happened with Austin?"
Indigo eyes narrowed to a deadly glare. "Get your hand off me, Yuy!"
"Or what?" came a vaguely amused reply.
Duo swung so fast that his fist grazed Heero's jaw as his team leader was dodging. But before the braided boy could swing again, Quatre and Trowa dove through the door and intervened.
"That's enough!" Quatre said angrily, blue eyes ablaze, as he gave a two-handed push to Duo's chest. "Both of you have to stop bickering! Do you want to get sent off to prison?"
Duo backed a step, as did Heero...the latter rubbing absently at his bruised jaw, and glaring over Trowa's shoulder at the braided boy.
"Well?" Quatre asked, giving each of them a searching look. "Are we going to settle down and work as a team, or do you want to give up right now?"
"If we're to work as a team," Heero said coolly, "he's got to learn to take orders...not to mention some constructive criticism."
"I'd take 'constructive' criticism," Duo retorted. "But endless bitching about one little screw-up isn't constructive."
Heero eyed him steadily, and then nodded slightly. "Fine. We'll move on."
"That's it?" Duo demanded. "You're not even gonna admit you were an anal prick about it?"
"No," said Heero, pushing past him and walking into the barracks. Trowa followed him, and Quatre merely shrugged.
"At least he's gonna let the braid incident drop," he said quietly to Duo.
"Yeah...that's real big of him," Duo grumbled. He looked at Quatre, the anger draining from him. "Damn it, Quat, I felt bad enough about it without his crap."
"I know you did. And I think he does, too. But he's just been appointed team leader, and that's a lot of pressure. You've got to ease up on him, too."
Duo closed his eyes, gradually regaining hold of his temper. "Alright, Quatre. I'll try."
The blonde beamed at him, blue eyes warm. "C'mon inside, and let's figure out how to totally blow the other teams out of the water tomorrow."
Duo threw an arm across Quatre's shoulders, ushering him inside, where the others were already studying possible layouts for obstacles and figuring out shortcuts and strategies.
TBC...
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