The storm had yet to die off by 0600, Heero noted with a frown. Peeking between the curtains in his room, all he could surmise was that it had instead gotten worse. This would probably delay their plans for leaving a bit. Relena was none too likely to want them to leave in weather like this -- and frankly, he was none too sure he wanted to be driving in it or having Duo drive in it. In short...

"It looks pretty damn miserable out there."

He started slightly at the sound of Duo's voice behind him, in the doorway to his room. Glancing over his shoulder, he noted the other was already dressed as well, even if he had obviously not gotten around to buttoning up the overshirt he was wearing over a tight white t-shirt. Even better than that, he held two steaming mugs. He could smell the American's coffee from here, not as amazing as it sounded when he remembered that Quatre had once debated the merits of trying to use Duo's coffee to replace fuel in some of his shuttles. "Coffee?" he asked quietly.

Duo grinned. "Only for me. I know you don't like the stuff. It looks like the Princess was hoping for a visit sometime soon. She had your favorite green tea in stock." The other joined him at the window, passing over his drink, and frowned at the scene outside. "We're definitely not getting out of here anytime soon in this mess. I wouldn't even trust Shinigami in this crap, let alone a car. It'd be like asking to end up dead in a ditch."

He nodded his agreement, taking a careful sip of his tea. There was really no point in burning himself with it, after all. He let a moment pass in a sort of comfortable silence before he asked one of the questions foremost in his mind. "What do you think of her?"

"Hmm? Usagi, you mean?" He nodded, pretending he was too busy with his tea to answer aloud. Duo probably knew better, but he still answered anyway. "Well, I definitely see where you got the whole angel thing. All she lacks are the wings and halo. I've never heard of an ability like what Relena told you she has, at least not outside Arabic mythology. A djinn, to be exact," he paused then clarified at the look of confusion he was obviously displaying, "or a genie. Granting wishes and all that. Although..."

As the American trailed off, he found himself prompting him to continue. "Although what?"

"Do you know if someone tried to make a wish while I was talking with Usagi alone yesterday afternoon?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, Relena almost did, but she caught herself before she could. Why?"

"I can't guess too much on the timing or anything, but for a few seconds there, her eyes started glowing this weird shade of silver. It only lasted no more than five seconds, but I know I saw it. It was pretty startling to see. So, Heero," he changed the subject deftly, "any idea of what we're going to do once we're out of here?"

A couple of ideas rushed through his mind, and he found himself struggling to hold back a flush. He did not need to be entertaining such notions. There was no way either of would ever be interested in someone like him, especially not like that. The very idea was just preposterous. "We need to find out what the limits are to what it is we can do. We need to figure out how Usagi-san got here and why. And we need to figure out what this 'doom' is that keeps showing up in my dreams."

"I think I like whatever it was you were thinking of first a lot better," Duo commented with a sly smile. "It looked a lot more fun."

"What looked like a lot of fun?"

Of course, Usagi would have chosen right then to show up. Now, granted from the circles under her eyes, there was every possibility that she'd been up all night. If she hated storms as badly as she said -- and as badly as she had acted like she did in the dead of the night last night -- then that was probably the truth. After all, she didn't seem like the kind to want to get up early on a regular basis, though what gave him that impression, he didn't know; it could have been the yawning, however.

There was no way Duo was going to pass up a golden chance like this for teasing him. He knew that, but really, there was no way of bracing for it. "It had to have been something good, for as red as he went." The other man grinned and chuckled almost to himself. "I doubt he'll ever kiss and tell, though."

Duo definitely had that one right: there was no way, even upon threat of torture or death, that he was going to give up the images that had gone through his mind. It was just too embarrassing. Instead, it was probably a much better idea to deflect some of the attention off himself, so he turned to Usagi and commented, "I wasn't expecting to see you up so early this morning."

Okay, that was a bit of a lame attempt, based on the way Duo smirked and rolled his eyes, but at least she ran with it. "I don't think I ever got to sleep. I really, really hate storms."

The other man glanced at the sheets of rain pouring down on the other side of the glass then back to her. "I must have been more exhausted than I realized. I didn't even notice this keeping up all night. If it does let up, though, we'll still need to get on the road pretty quick." He paused, taking a sip of his coffee. It was only because he knew Duo so well that he was able to realize he was weighting the possibilities of what to say next for maximum effect. "I mean, if that's all right by you and you're ready to leave, Miss Tsukino."

She shrugged. "I packed last night. There was nothing else... to do... Tsukino?" she trailed off to ask, utter confusion written all over her face. Even more telling, it shone from her eyes as well. "Is that my name?"