Duo glares at him and pulls out his phone pointedly. They aren’t going on this thing as official Preventers, so there’s no fucking reason to dress up for the shuttle flight, and he gets way more attention when he travels in official gear. People expect someone like him to look like a college kid; they don’t expect him to look like an official Preventer. Something Zechs is well aware of because he’s seen the phenomenon in action first hand on a number of occasions, but he still can’t resist letting Duo know he’s being unprofessional.
Besides, he’ll be way more comfortable on the shuttle.
“Charming,” Zechs says, and it’s almost neutral, but Duo knows him too well at this point to buy it.
“Oh, fuck you.” He’s usually somewhat more creative with his insults, but it’s early and he’s still quite hungover.
“One of these days, someone is going to take you up on that offer.”
Duo raises his eyebrows at Zechs. “Looking for permission?” he asks, surprised that Zechs was borderline impolite in that response.
“Simply giving sound advice against careless invitations,” Zechs replies. He narrows his eyes and then asks, incredulously, “Are you… hungover?”
“Ding, ding, ding, give the man a prize,” Duo replies. “For the record, I was supposed to be off today. I planned to be off today. You’re fucking lucky I even heard my damn phone.” He’s not, actually. Unless Duo is literally passed out, he’s a very light sleeper, even when he’s really drunk, but Zechs doesn’t know that, and it’d be true of most people. “I did all the responsible, adulty things before I got plastered last night, so you can save the judgy looks for someone who got hosed when they were supposed to work the next day.”
It's supposed to be a recon mission to check out the new, high-end casino out on the edges of easily-reachable space, but nothing ever goes simply when it's assigned to Duo Maxwell and Zechs Merquise. They aren't supposed to find Treize, they aren't supposed to get tangled up in the human experimentation going on, and they aren't supposed to make it out alive.
My notes: I love the way this author writes non-con with Duo, and this fic is no exception. This time it's nanites and the fuck-or-die trope, and it's delicious. Duo is super-competent here, which is also nice, and it's a case fic as well! This is a WIP, but the author is great at regular updates so getting to the end is a certainty.