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"Going the Distance"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Angst, language, violence, sex, AU Pairings: 1x2x3 Summary: Duo Maxwell has just signed on to join Team Gundam Wing, an upstart League of Legends team looking to win the World Championships. Duo Maxwell, the first openly gay professional gamer. Duo Maxwell, the guy hated by almost all of Reddit. Duo Maxwell, the guy whose own brother hates him. Duo Maxwell, the guy who really just wants to find a team that doesn't hate him. A/N: This fic is an AU that has the boys playing
professional League of Legends. I'm going to try my best to not get
bogged down too much in game terminology or things like that, but,
well, I WILL reference the game and try to explain as much as I can,
as I go. I'm also way too lazy to make up "new" teams for
the league, so I will be using existing teams and players, with the
exceptions of Team Gundam Wing, Zodiac Gaming, and the Valkyries.
So… I will be referencing real people and real teams. "Going the Distance" Chapter Two "Nervous?" Duo snorted. "Me? Nervous? Nah. What's there to be nervous about?" Relena watched his fingers shake as he zipped up the front of his TGW track jacket. "You mean you're not nervous about your first game on the mainstage as a member of TGW? You aren't nervous about the two hundred people in the studio audience of the hundreds of thousands who will be watching you on Twitch and judging your every move? You mean you aren't nervous about letting down your new teammates who are finally starting to trust you? You aren't nervous about thousands of people ready to call you out for your sexuality if you make one wrong move? You mean you aren't nervous about your brother -" "Alright," Duo interrupted her and raised a hand to forestall any further comments. "Of course I'm nervous." Relena smiled and flattened the collar of his jacket for him, the gesture oddly comforting. "Well, the good news is that we're playing Cloud 9." "How is it possibly good news that we're playing against the top ranked North American team?" Duo had to ask. Relena arched an eyebrow. "No one expects us to win." Duo snorted. "No one except our team." Relena shrugged. "Exactly. So the only expectations we have to worry about are our own. Everything else - it doesn't matter. The rest of the world can fuck off." Duo blinked. Over the past three weeks, as he settled into life at the Mobile Suit Gaming house and slowly adjusted to Wufei's snark, Quatre's obscene optimism, Trowa's sarcasm, Heero's blunt and often painful honesty, Sally's incisive commentary, and Relena's perkiness. But he had yet to hear her swear. "Um..." She rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me I've offended you. I listen to you guys - I know you've got a foul mouth." Duo shrugged. "Yeah. Sorry about that." She snorted. "Don't apologize. I think it's hot. Not that you care." She winked at him and then checked her watch. "It's almost ten. The guys need to get a move on." Duo had been surprised to find that he was the only morning person on the team. Relena was usually the only one up when he went downstairs in the morning to make coffee. He had figured that Quatre might be a morning person - after all, he was unnaturally happy and enthusiastic - but it turned out that he was only that way after sleeping in until noon. On the days when he had had to wake up before noon, the blonde had proven to be a grumpy bastard on par with Wufei. Heero and Trowa weren't not morning people, but he rarely saw them in the mornings unless they were headed out of the door to go for a run together. And Wufei, of course, was just an asshole 24/7, Duo had quickly learned. It was almost ten-thirty when the rest of the team assembled, Quatre predictably grumpy and looking adorably sleep-tousled since Relena had literally had to drag him out of his bed and watch him get dressed. "Okay, let's get a move on!" Relena clapped her hands and signalled for them to pick up their gear and move out. They clamoured into the van, Sally driving while Relena took the front passenger seat. Quatre took the first row in the van, stretching out and closing his eyes again in a desperate attempt for more sleep. Which left the back two rows of the van open. Wufei climbed into the very back and glared at Duo. Trowa climbed in next, taking a seat in the middle row, and Duo arched an eyebrow at Heero. He imagined Heero would choose to sit with Trowa. The two seemed inseparable in game and out. Duo tried not to be jealous. He and Solo had been like that once, before Solo made it to the pros. But even afterwards, they had been close, playing together in Solo's spare time and splitting an apartment even though Solo could have - should have - lived with the rest of his teammates. "I'll sit with Wufei," Heero said softly and Duo sighed in relief. "Thank you," he said, meaning it more genuinely than he perhaps ever had before. Heero snorted in amusement, clearly picking up on his sincerity. Duo took the seat next to Trowa and Heero joined Wufei in the back. He was careful to keep space between them, sitting on the opposite of the van, but as soon as Sally took the first turn he found himself sliding over until he was wedged against Trowa. "Sorry," he muttered and scooted away. He felt himself flush. Trowa's thigh had been rock hard - no doubt from all of his morning runs with Heero - and it had been a long damn time since Duo had been that close to someone. Trowa shrugged one shoulder, unconcerned and unaware of Duo's mental turmoil. It had been a challenge, these last three weeks, to restrain himself from thinking about his teammates in a sexual manner. It was easy enough to dismiss Wufei and Quatre - Wufei, in addition to being a homophobe, was just too much of a dick for Duo to ever be interested. And while Quatre was cute, he was also straight - straight and clearly in love with Relena but too shy to make a move. It was only really Trowa and Heero that Duo struggled around. Mostly because they insisted on walking around half-naked - not just after exercising, but sometimes during their late night practices the two men showed up dressed only in sweatpants or left their zippered team-issued hoodies open. It was torture for Duo, but even when they were completely dressed there was no denying how fucking gorgeous they were, how sexy Trowa was when he smirked, how easy it was to forget how to spell his own name when Heero laughed. "So, what's the game plan for today, Captain?" Relena asked them as Sally pulled onto the freeway. "Sleep," Quatre muttered. "You're going to sleep through the game against Cloud 9? Great strategy," Relena teased. "No," Quatre groaned and sat up. "No one's going to be able to sleep through that and since you won't let me sleep now I can guess we can talk strategy." Relena leaned back to smile sweetly, twirling her pink streaked hair around one finger. "What a brilliant idea!" Quatre snorted and turned away from her to look back at the rest of the team. "Thoughts?" He asked. "We should focus on banning out strong marksmen," Heero suggested. "We can't let Sneaky get on a comfortable champion." "That will also affect you," Duo pointed out. Heero shrugged. "I can manage. My champion pool is deep. I can always pull out Fizz if worse comes to worse." Duo stared at him. It took a moment to realize that Heero was teasing him. "There will be no Fizz today," Wufei growled. "Don't worry. I can always go back to my Ziggs," Duo sneered. For three weeks Wufei had held the damned Fizz jungle over his head. "Hey - I might want to play him mid," Quatre said. "He is a mid-lane champion, after all." Wufei rolled his eyes. "You don't even like Fizz." Quatre shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. We're talking strategy - not petty arguments. If Duo really thinks he can pull off Jungle Fizz then we should let him go for it." Duo stared at the blonde. He was constantly surprised by his support. "Anyway," Quatre continued. "I agree with Heero - we should focus on marksmen bans. their mid and top laners are really flexible and it doesn't make sense to ban against them. What about the jungle?" "Huh?" Duo realized they were all looking at him. "What are your thoughts about facing Meteos?" Trowa clarified. "Oh." His thoughts. Duo's thoughts on facing Meteos: terror? He didn't think that was what they wanted to hear. But Duo had spent the last four years watching Meteos play, had admired him and analyzed him and had considered himself to be a fanboy. He'd played against him a handful of times in Solo Queue, and Meteos had beaten him every single time. "I think he's going to underestimate me," Duo said - he hoped. Meteos had not been the most generous opponent, and Duo's fanboy-ing had ended after a game when Meteos suggested he try his hand at DOTA 2 instead of League of Legends. "He likes to get either top or bot rolling, and if we are able to shut down Sneaky, their marksman in the bottom lane, then he's going to be forced to focus top lane. So I just need to be ready for him to camp Wufei. We can do this a couple of ways - I can stay up top too and keep Meteos from getting anything going, or we can take advantage of a top camp and I can make sure we get bottom and mid in good positions." "More team gold if you just let Wufei struggle through top lane by himself," Heero pointed out. "We could have control of the entire bottom of the map - dragon, bottom lane, mid lane..." Duo nodded in agreement. "Exactly." "This only works if you can pull it off," Wufei muttered. "No," Duo countered. "This only works if you trust me." Wufei rolled his eyes but he didn't have a response to that. -o- Duo had played in front of a live audience before. Last year he had subbed in for OZ twice, before the disastrous falling out with Solo. He had been there before, had set up his gear with two hundred cheering people, under those damn bright lights. But it hadn't been like this. No one had thought he was going to do well - which was kind of like now. No one had liked him much - which was also kind of like now. No one had cheered his name - also, strangely, kind of like now. But unlike then, now Duo was with his team. He wasn't a sub. He wasn't Solo Maxwell's flashy, cocky little brother. He was TGW Deathscythe. He drew in a deep breath and tugged at the zipper on his hoodie. It was fucking hot on the stage. Quatre gave his shoulder a squeeze. "This is going to be awesome," the blonde assured him. Duo nodded, but he wasn't sure he really agreed. This was either going to be okay - or it was going to be a bloodbath. Either way, it was about to happen. He sat down and put on his headset, grateful for the sound-deadening earphones that drowned out the Cloud 9 chants from the crowd. It was one thing to be the underdog, but Duo could admit, to himself alone, that he really, really didn't want to hear someone yell out faggot. It probably wouldn't happen - event security would never stand for it - but it didn't change the fact that it was a distinct possibility. He probably shouldn't have checked Reddit that morning, but he had, and he had not been the least bit surprised to see that the 'Waiting for Duo Maxwell to Fail' thread had a slew of new comments, almost all negative. More than a few had suggested he just start sucking Meteos' dick when the game started. There had been a few decent human beings on the thread - including Hilde as JungleValkyrie, who suggested that Duo would be happy to offer Meteos the chance to suck his dick after Duo won the game for his team. NoName333 had also made another comment, saying that he looked forward to watching Duo's fine ass walk across the stage to shake hands with Cloud 9 after they won. And Perfect Soldier01 had had a similar remark, saying it would be good to watch an out League player win, especially a hot one. So Duo had three fans, one his best friend, two unknowns who probably lived in their mom's basement and never took off their pajamas. But at least he had three fans. Even though Quatre was the team captain, it fell to Wufei, sitting in the far right seat as the Top Laner, to enter their bans. Each team had three bans, going back and forth one ban at a time, until six champions were banned from the game. Some teams like to ban the "overpowered" or OP champions - ones that seemed to steamroll in games. Some teams liked to target ban against specific players. As Cloud 9 entered their first ban, Lee Sin, Duo had a suspicion that their team had decided to target ban him. Lee Sin was his most played champion. They had finalized their plans to ban out marksmen from Cloud 9, and Quatre told Wufei to ban Tristana, one of the best marksmen champions. Cloud 9's next ban was Elise, Duo's second most played champion and he wanted to roll his eyes. Cloud 9 could ban his favorite three Jungle champions, but Duo had at least eight Junglers he felt good on, and another six champions he was okay on. It was a decent strategy - and maybe he should be flattered that Cloud 9 thought he was a threat, but he knew it was more a slap in the face than anything. Cloud 9 assumed that if they banned his best three champions, Duo would embarrass himself and his team. "Ban Jinx next," Quatre told Wufei over the headset. The timer counted down, and with only one second to spare, Wufei typed in the ban. Fizz. "What the fuck?" Duo demanded, turning to him. "Wufei!" Quatre sounded just as angry. But Wufei just shook his head. "Cloud 9 is banning out his champion pool - I'm not going to risk him doing something stupid and gimmicky like Fizz just because it worked for him in Solo Queue a few times." "Wufei - I'm going to fucking -" "Guys," Trowa interrupted, his baritone voice soft and oddly soothing over the headset. "They record team chat. Save the arguments for later." Duo forced himself to calm down. Whatever. It was one wasted ban. They could still ban Jinx with their last ban. Cloud 9 banned Jarvan IV, Duo's hands down favorite champion, and he shrugged. Whatever. He had other good Junglers. "Ban Jinx," Quatre said again, frustration in his voice. Again, the timer counted down. Ziggs. Duo resisted the urge to rip off his headset and punch Wufei. What in the hell was wrong with him? Cloud 9 had the first pick - and predictably, they selected Jinx. There was silence over the headsets, and Duo wondered what everyone else was thinking. Wondered if their thoughts were as murderous as his own. "Fine. Fine." Quatre said over the headset. "Duo, go ahead and pick your Jungle champ and Wufei grab Yasuo for me in the mid lane." But Wufei locked in Gragas, a top laner, for himself. Duo stared at his screen and he tried to figure out what was going on here - did Wufei really hate him this much? So much that he was willing to fuck over the entire team? Duo drew in a deep breath and selected Yasuo. "Duo -" Quatre started to say. "It's fine," he assured the blonde. You can get my Jungler in the next round." It meant that Meteos would get to select his own Jungler first. It meant that in all likelihood, Duo's next preferred champion, Kha'zix, would be selected. It meant that Duo would be forced onto his number five choice. But it also meant that Quatre got the champion he was most comfortable on. And Quatre was the team captain. Sure enough, Meteos selected Kha'zix in the next pick round, along with Nidalee for their top lane. "Who do you want?" Quatre asked Duo after Heero locked in Lucian for himself. Duo thought about it. Nunu was the best counter to a Kha'zix jungle, but only because Nunu could counter-jungle and steal gold from Kha'zix's jungle. Duo would have minimal lane presence for the first part of the game if he had to focus on keeping Kha'zix behind. And if he did that... if he stayed away from the lanes then there was every chance his teammates would fall behind. Rengar was another choice. Rengar could apply incredible map pressure - but only after level six, which still meant that Duo's team would be weak in the early game. Duo sighed. "Shaco." "Shaco?" Quatre repeated in surprise. "Yeah." "You haven't won a single game on that champion," Wufei hissed. Duo turned to glare at him. "He's the only damn champion I can use to try to save this game." "No one plays him in LCS," Heero added, very unhelpfully. "Well, today they do," Duo said. "You're sure about this?" Quatre asked. Duo closed his eyes. No. He wasn't sure. He was convinced, in fact, that it was a terrible idea. But he had seen Bengi play Shaco into Kha'zix once. And Duo... Duo was not Bengi. But still... "Yeah. I'm sure." Quatre locked in Shaco and even with the sound-deadening earphones, Duo could hear the shock of the audience. -o- Duo slammed his bedroom door shut. He ripped off his team jacket and threw it at his closet. There was absolutely nothing satisfying about the way it softly landed on the floor. Nothing satisfying about staring at that damn team logo. Team. Some fucking team. The game had been a nightmare. Duo had felt like he was playing in Solo Queue all over again. Wufei refused to do what Quatre wanted him to do. Heero and Trowa did their own thing - supporting each other and virtually ignoring everyone else on the map until halfway through the game. And Quatre... Quatre tried to make plays, tried to call out to his team, tried so fucking hard to make it all work. Meteos had stolen Duo's blue camp to start off the game, setting him back a level, and things had only gotten worse. Jinx, in the bottom lane, had gotten an early kill with the help of Meteos on Kha'zix and Duo had been forced to keep an eye on bottom lane, had continued to lose experience and levels to Meteos, who secured kills for his mid and top lane while Duo had to babysit. They had lost decisively, but it wasn't until Duo died in an attempt to steal the all-powerful Baron Nashor camp from Meteos that Cloud 9 was able to push their way to victory. Duo had lost games before. He had made shitty decisions and bad plays before. But he had never felt so defeated. So worthless. Sure, Wufei had fucked up champion select for everyone. Sure, Cloud 9 had banned out his favorite champions and taken his backup - but Duo was better than one kill, five deaths and two assists. Duo was better than a lost game at thirty minutes. His phone rang. Hilde. He set the phone down on his desk. He didn't want to talk to her now. He was pretty sure he was on the verge of crying, and he'd be damned if he ever did that again. Duo threw himself on his bed, wincing at the squeak of the frame. That would be just great - the perfect finish to this fucked up day if he managed to break the bed frame. He pulled a pillow over his face and shouted into it. The first time he had "thrown" a game, made a play so badly that the rest of his team couldn't recover from it, had been two years ago, in a ranked 5 versus 5 game at a tournament when he and Solo had still played together. No one else on the team had spoken to him - but Duo could feel their anger, knew they were seething and ready to lay into him and would have, had it not been for the fact that Solo was the star player and his big brother. That night, when they got home, Solo had sat down on the couch beside Duo and asked him to walk through the game, play by play, and figure out what he could have done differently. And when Duo had gotten to that play - that moment when he had decisively lost the game for his team, Solo had told him to stop and Solo had hugged him. "If you do something that fucking stupid again, I'll cut your hair off while you sleep," Solo had muttered against his forehead, holding him tightly. Duo had laughed, alarmed that he sounded near tears, and Solo had only hugged him tighter. Fucking hell. Duo wanted his brother right now. Wanted to hear Solo threaten him with "debraiding." Instead, he was willing to bet Solo was on Reddit right now, with everyone else, saying that they wait for Duo Maxwell to fail was over. He had failed. Spectacularly. ~ * ~ |
