Trowa spent half the day trying to identify the suspect with as much detail as he could remember but found that he was so distracted fantasizing about his recent encounter. When he did successfully describe the said criminal, the officers questioning him merely laughed and left him to think about just how naive he was right from the very beginning.

“Are you nuts? I can assure you, Mr. Barton that if you ever give that description again, nobody’s going to believe you.”

“But that’s what he looked like,” Trowa insisted.

“Look, I know it’s hard to be new in town and all, but the descriptions you gave were pretty absurd. If anything, it’s going to get you in trouble. Just call us if you come up with a better one.”

Thoughts of paranoia entered Trowa’s head and ideas that his co-workers were conspiring against him didn’t fall far behind. After all, during the discussion with the police, not once did his injured co-workers confirm any of his claims. It was as if nothing happened to them despite the obvious hit marks that rendered them unconscious.

Now angry more than anything else, Trowa made his way back to his lab to sulk alone or think about the sexy thief, whichever thought came first. He was surprised to find that instead of being greeted by the sight of his lab mice, he had walked right into somebody else’s face.

“Ah! Watch where you’re going!” the stranger said.

Trowa looked up, or rather, looked up, down, and then up again at the endless length of hair that was stuck on his lab coat.

“Uh, sorry,” he said and untangled the braided hair from the button of his coat.

“Geez man, I’m not going to kill you for it,” the stranger said. “The name’s Duo Maxwell. You must be new here.”

Trowa finally looked up to a pair of big, bright eyes that screamed jolly in every possible way. He reached his hand out to take Duo’s and was frightened when he was pulled into a tight bear hug instead. Some people were just too touchy.

“Uh, Trowa Barton, pharmaceutical department.”

The stranger who Trowa now identified as Duo held him at arm’s length and scrutinized his face. He was uncomfortable to say the least, but Duo didn’t seem to care.

“You must be the guy who came across Q30ZO.”

“Q30ZO?” Trowa questioned. Did he now have to associate the most gorgeous person he’d ever met with the name Q30ZO? What kind of mental image would that bring? It was such a turn off that he didn’t even want to think about it.

“Yeah, you’re lucky he didn’t pound your head to the floor until you forgot how he looked like. That was a pretty accurate description you gave the cops, pal. So tell me, what did they say?”

Trowa had to back up a little. Who was this guy? He just met him and all of a sudden they were pals? Did the guy even work there? What was his purpose?

“Don’t look too surprised,” Duo said. “Word travels fast around here and since you don’t look like you trust me...” Duo placed his ID card right in front of his face. “The name, like I said earlier was Duo Maxwell, computer analyst.”

Trowa blinked and then looked at him closely.

“They just laughed and then left,” he finally answered.

Duo laughed in response. “I knew they’d do that. You felt pretty stupid, didn’t you?”

Trowa nodded but was not exactly pleased with the reaction he got.

“You really are new around here...”

“Uh, why’s he called Q30ZO?” Trowa asked. He wasn’t about to daydream about some guy who sounded like he was named after a license plate.

“Eh? Oh, that’s just his nickname around here.”

“So he’s around here a lot? Why hasn’t be been caught yet?”

“Who knows? Probably because he’s invincible? The guy knocked the shit out of me once before, when I was new around here of course. He mentioned something about me being a humungous loud mouth that he had to do it. I was crying for help like a sissy. I’m surprised you didn’t scream like a helpless kitten.”

“Uh, no.”

Trowa was thinking along the lines of kissing rather than beating the crap out of him. He supposed he was lucky that he survived the encounter unscathed. He couldn’t fathom how someone that adorably sweet looking could even render someone twice his size unconscious.

“Thanks for the information,” Trowa said hastily, all of a sudden remembering the ill mice that were waiting for him in his lab. “I’ll, umm, see you around. I’ve still got work to do.”

“Yeah, sure. Just look for me if you need any help!” Duo called out as Trowa left for his intended destination.

When Trowa reached his lab, he was surprised to find the missing vial in the same, exact spot he left it in. If he wasn’t too keen, he wouldn’t have noticed that although the vial was in the same spot, the label was faced away from him. It was strange for him to think of reasons why the thief would return the vial in the first place. He looked closer and then noticed that it was now half empty.

Shrugging, Trowa opened the bottle labeled Q15NO25 and dipped the dropper in before feeding the substance to the ill mouse. If the thief decided to take only half and leave the rest for him then more power to him. It was no longer his responsibility to make any efforts to describe, catch, or even give information on the events that occurred that day. Nobody seemed to believe him or back him up on it anyway.

The weeks passed, uneventful as they were with no encounters with the thief or the cheerful computer analyst he’d talked to earlier. There were no more strange occurrences although his employer did question him quite a bit about the incident. After ensuring his safety, he was left to do whatever he so desired and was assured that although the thief may at one point in time hit him very hard, he was still going to be alive and well.

“He hasn’t killed anyone yet,” his employer said. “I doubt he’s going to start by killing you.”

It wasn’t such a great assurance that would have brought about relief, but it worked for him. He was almost sure the thief wasn’t going to harm him the way he harmed the others.

Confident as he was, Trowa worked undaunted by anything that came his way. His co-workers found his previous description quite amusing and some envied him for being able to leave the incident unscathed. They asked several questions some of which involved how many ribs of his were broken and how long he was out of it. Of course, he was never harmed in the first place so all his answers ended up to be zero.

It was another week of so before his survival from the encounter was no longer considered a big deal. He was happy to be left alone and took the chance to continue his work in peace. That week, he worked on a different vaccine that was still in the process of being perfected. It didn’t work quite as well as he would have wanted it, but he still had an ample amount of time to figure out what was wrong with it. That way, he’d be able to go into the more exciting aspect of his job - making sure it worked on the lab mice.

It didn’t take him too long to figure it out. A week later, he was ready to test the substance. After figuring out the right mixture, he placed the new substance in a bottle haphazardly labeled Q01NO23. It was strange. Now that he thought about it, the thief’s name sounded like the bottle numbers, only shorter.

“Must be the way they label things around here,” Trowa said to himself. He found it quite peculiar and was a bit upset by the fact that the thief was named just like another old vial. That thought alone sparked even more curiosity within him.

“Maybe I should ask Duo,” he said to himself.

The opportunity never came and Trowa was left to spend the next few days in the lab alone. The only redeeming value to his solitary labor was that he was working with live creatures. At least they kept him company.

He thought it odd but all of a sudden, he wanted company. He felt a craving for human contact even if it were of the thief he hadn’t since forgotten. Once he thought about it, it did happen. After taking a break for lunch like he usually did, Trowa went back to work in the testing facility. Faced with the computer, he typed in a few vital pieces of information and made sure that the final mixture of his discovery was working. He had to be sure before he administered it to the mice.

What he didn’t expect was to feel something warm and slimy gliding around his ear while he was busy trying to decipher the amount of chemicals he had just put in the substance. Not thinking whether a slug or a large bug crawled up his ear, he absently whapped his ear to get rid of the annoying distraction.

“Ow, you jerk! That was my face you were hitting!”

“Ah!”

Trowa jumped from his seat and was faced with the thief he had once encountered. He did want to see the man again but not in that way.

There he was, suspended upside down from the ceiling with the thinnest looking string supporting him from its anchor on the ceiling. Just what kind of infiltration method was that? And why on earth was the guy turning his ear into an ice cream sundae?

“Q30ZO?” was the first question that came to Trowa’s mind. He wanted to confirm that the thief was identified by that name after all.

“Yes, C3PO. It is I, R2D2.” [1]

Trowa furrowed his brows in confusion.

“You dolt!” the thief suddenly said. “Don’t you get it?”

Trowa shook his head, still confused.

“Never mind. I’m going to forget the fact that you’re turning me into a model number. I was just trying to see how your ear tasted like. You smell nice, doctor. What do you use? Dial White Antibacterial soap?”

Trowa nodded. He was good.

“Ohh, sterile... I love it when they’re germ-free.”

Trowa gaped at him. The way he said it in such an emotive way was just too delicious. He was gorgeous even when he was flipped over. His hair looked so soft hanging from his head that way. The only downside to it was that his face was turning red, probably from the rush of blood being deposited to his head. It didn’t help Trowa’s brain much that the perfectly sculpted body was still in the tight, black outfit, hanging from the ceiling.

“Do me a favor and hand me that vial, doc,” the thief said and Trowa did as he was told with a dumb, hungry look on his face.

The thief transferred half the substance into a bottle of his own with perfect precision although he was positioned upside down. When he was done, he handed the vial back to Trowa and secured his half of the substance into his belt compartment. Trowa wasn’t paying attention to any of this though. He was busy imagining himself with the thief in la-la land.

“Thank you so much!” the thief said. “I really appreciate that you’re cooperating with me. But then again, I’d never, ever think of hitting that face of yours, handsome.”

Trowa nodded like the brainless idiot he was currently being and was rewarded with the thief’s response to turn his mouth into an ice cream sundae. It was definitely better than the ear. He tasted like apples but that wasn’t important at all.

“Wha...” he said when he felt the mouth disappear.

Trowa snapped back to reality just in time to see the thief disappear up into the ceiling and into the tiny door that opened up into the night sky. The little wiggle the thief did here and there to get out through the tiny hole was unbelievably sexy. Trowa groaned as he watched him leave.

He didn’t care if they fired him for giving away their chemicals. The craving he felt for the still unnamed thief was just too irresistible. Trowa was smart though. As he was daydreaming, he was also keeping track of the vaccines that had been stolen so far. Q15NO25 and Q01NO23 were on the top of his list. Just why was the thief called Q30ZO anyway?