damned_institute | Day 28: Main Street

That was the right answer. Duo getting distracted by the beauty parlor, though, wasn't quite what Omi would have expected to happen next. He trailed behind the other teen, wondering what exactly was going on.

Getting a good look in the window didn't help much, nor did Duo's next words. "Huh? Let who live what down?"

"Oh, sorry." Duo snapped his attention back to Omi with a sheepish grin. "I've got a few friends in this mess, too. One of them happens to be in there." He gestured towards the Beauty Salon with his thumb.

"He's the brown-haired one. Sweater and blue jeans. Usually, he's the serious kind of guy. Sort of a killjoy at times, in my opinion. I don't have a clue why he's in there being waited on, but you can bet I'm going to tease him about it later." At least until Heero threatened him with bodily harm, which probably wouldn't take too long.

Serious kind of guy... so... like Aya. Omi couldn't help but grin at the mental image of Aya getting a manicure. He shook his head. Duo and his friend probably got along about as well as a pair of cats in a sack, but sometimes that made for the best sort of friends. "Right. So what were you saying before? I'm hoping you've got a better idea of how to get around the nurses than I do."

Most of Omi's ideas tended to involve lots of injuries, death, and things blowing up, you see. Not so useful in this situation.

Duo took one last look at his friend, storing away the image in his mind before fully turning his attention back on Omi. "I was saying we should try the hardware store first." He motioned down towards the end of the street. "The electronic store, too. As for the nurses, we'll figure out how to stash the stuff once we know what we want. It'll be mostly up to chance. There's no telling how careful they'll check us all when heading back, but I doubt they're gonna do much if they do catch us. We're crazy, after all. We can't help it."

Of course, Duo mentioned all this without first considering what he knew about Omi...which was next to nothing. As far as he could tell, the kid was just some student with a part-time job or something. "By the way, uh, do you know how to improvise any kinds of weapons?" Geez, that sounded like such an odd question.

He gave Duo his cutest, most innocent smile. The one that usually had people resisting the urge to pinch his cheeks and coo. "We'll just have to make sure they aren't looking too closely, then."

The smile dropped a bit, becoming more natural as Omi shrugged. "I can do alright. Small explosives, mostly, but other things if I have the right materials." He wrinkled up his nose, glancing around the town. "Not that I think we'll find most of those here. I wonder if they have a craft store."

Oh, this kid was good. Duo couldn't help but grin, despite the nostalgic pang he felt in his chest. He had kids like Omi in his gang, way back when. Cutest things in the world when they wanted to be, right up until they stole you blind. He didn't stay on that train of thought long enough to wonder if they survived as long as he had, though. That would just dampen his spirits again.

"What do you have in mind? There's craft supplies at Landel's, but I'm not sure exactly what you're looking to make." He wasn't going to ask where Omi knew how to make 'small explosives and other things'. Every teenage kid had his hobbies, right? And if he didn't ask, he didn't have to tell in return, either.

Of course he was good. Natural talent combined with far too much training tended to produce results. Except in his case it was usually 'cutest thing in the world right up until he put an arrow through your heart,' but semantics.

He shook his head. "Those are designed not to be usable as weapons. Nothing especially sharp or strong enough to hold a point if you were able to sharpen them, and don't even get me started on how much counter-weighting most of the things in there would need to be useful for throwing, let alone in a close fight..." Oh, right, rambling was bad. Ah well, in for a penny... "Metal crochet needles would be good, but only if I could get my hands on something poisonous."

He bit his lip, going over options in his head before shaking his head again. "I'd need to see what they have. Components for explosives are easier to hide, anyway."

Ok, scratch that previous thought. That was a bit more detail than most normal teenagers put into a hobby like this, but like before, Duo wasn't about to ask. It felt like an unspoken law. If no one brought up where they got this stuff, then neither of them had anything to explain. That didn't mean he wasn't going to give Omi a very brief odd look. Which he did.

"Right. Well, we can be on the lookout for that stuff, then. If you see anything you might be able to use, just point it out. I'm sure we've got enough time today to search out the whole town for stuff."

Omi caught that look and smiled in response. Sorry, Duo, but he had to have his fun somehow. Confusing people was just something he did.

"Alright." Now it was Omi's turn to fix Duo with a brief look, although his was more considering before he dropped his eyes to the street in front of them. Better he admit this now than when they were ready to try something. "But I hope you're better at actually, um, acquiring things than I am. It's not exactly where my talents are."

Destroying property was a bit different from making off with it, after all.

Duo shrugged at Omi's concern about the required skills, clasping his hands behind his head. "Don't worry about it. I'm something of a professional, so I've got it covered." Yes, that was an air of pride in his voice. Most kids his age couldn't say that they'd been doing this for ten years. "All you need to do is tell me what you want, then make with that cute thing you have going to distract the salesperson. I'll do the rest." It was just like old times...

A professional. Omi almost snorted at that. How many of them weren't professional somethings here? Maybe that was the connection between them, although realistically, Omi'd mostly given up on ever figuring out a reasoning behind their being trapped there.

'Cute thing,' huh? Omi didn't like being so predictable. It grated on him, even when he knew that here he was forced into it just by a lack of his usual tools. Unfortunately for Duo, that left him with a discontent Omi, and a discontent Omi was a dangerous thing, armed in this case with the largest chibi eyes of cute sadness known to man. That plus the way he pulled his hands into his oversized hoodie and ducked his head to look up through his bangs made him seem years younger than he was. "Cute thing? What do you mean?"

Now, if Duo would just ignore the hints of a devious smile treacherously trying to take over the cute chibi pout...

Duo faltered and dropped his hands back down to his sides, caught in Omi's pouting gaze. "Hey now, don't give me that. I didn't mean anything bad by it. I used to know plenty of kids who were good at tugging on people's heartstrings." Just like Omi was right now. Duo knew he was being played, but damn if it wasn't convincing enough to make him worry a little.

"You can't honestly tell me you've never used that look to get something you wanted, am I right?"

Omi's entire life consisted of convincing people he was something he wasn't. Duo really shouldn't feel bad about getting taken in by it. Omi, however, did feel just the tiniest twinge of guilt for making him worry.

He dropped the act as easily as he'd slipped into it, even looking apologetic about the whole thing. "Maybe once or twice. Sorry. It's kind of a reflex."

Which was true enough, in a manner of speaking. Cute and harmless had served him quite well so far.

Duo was a little more relieved than he should have been to know that he was only being played. At least Omi wasn't genuinely put off by the comment about his arsenal of 'cute'.

"It's alright. No need to apologize. That was perfect, actually. Just make sure to do that inside the shop, ok?" He offered the other boy a smile, just to show there were no hard feelings.

He snorted and did a cheesy salute like in the American movies Yohji sometimes liked to watch, being Very Serious about it, of course. "Yessir!"

He stopped to eye the front of the hardware store from a far enough distance that they were unlikely to attract attention. It was odd to be casing a place without a target to keep track of, but it was just another thing to add on to the ever-growing list of oddities. He glanced over at Duo before going back to window shopping. The very pink building on the corner drew his attention, or at least seemed to. "You've done this before, right? So I guess that means I'll follow your lead."

Duo snorted and gave a half-laugh. Two could play the Serious Business game. "At ease, soldier, or you'll end up like my friend back there." And really, that was almost a fate worse than death. Or at least Duo liked to joke that it was. Heero wasn't quite as bad as he made the guy out to be.

"Sounds good. Just remember: act natural. The quickest way to get caught is by acting paranoid. We're just a couple of kids looking around town." Duo cast a casual glance towards the shop again, glad for the small size of the town. It made things a little easier when there were less witnesses.

"You ready?" he asked, looking back to Omi.

He could do 'acting natural.' They'd been undercover often enough for that, certainly. It still felt weird. Whether it was the lack of Weiss, the lack of a target, or the lack of an official mission that was bothering him the most, he couldn't say.

But who could ever see this smile and suspect Omi of... well, anything? Discounting people who actually knew him, of course. "As I'll ever be."

"Then, let's do this."

Duo flashed Omi a mischievous grin before shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and strolling over tot he hardware store.

Day 28: Main Street

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