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"Free Falling"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, rated for language, yaoi pairings Pairings: 2x1, 3x4 Summary: Duo searches for the key to happiness and love while free falling through life A/N: I couldn't have done this without Waterlily's
invaluable editing "Free Falling" Chapter One "Duo, why don't you come for a visit?" Why not? I could use a change of scenery. Time to move on. Ever since Hilde left the scrap heap to work on the L4 colony, L2 had gotten whole lot drearier, and no one visited me here. "Too busy to see me here this week, eh?" I joked. Hell, Quat only stopped by the once and I looked like he was afraid to touch anything for catching some disease. "Frankly, Duo, L2 isn't for everyone. I'm used to the dry heat here. You like my swimming pool, don't you?" That gigantic lake? Yes, I did. I'd stayed with Quat once during the war, and, man, his estate was one fine place. Since I'd moved to L2, I'd been too busy making ends meet to travel, but now the allure of warmth, luxury, and pure lazing around was too much. I only had the one weak excuse not to go. "I'd have to shut down the yard. I really haven't anyone to run things while I'm gone." "Sell it. I'll find you something better. I promise." He'd been trying to get me to do that for the last year, but it was all I had. It was the first real job I'd had that was destructive, totally legal, and I got paid for. It was security against a return to the streets. My prior livelihoods were "lively" and in the "hoods" but not far from hand-to-mouth. And after my lack-luster, un-gainful youth, there was the war. Why not? As a fifteen year old, shooting the bad guys was more of a game than it should have been. My mind was on immediate survival most of the time. Not on the usual teenage interests. Not music. Not sports. And not sex. Not really much at all except staying alive, eating, sleeping, killing the bad guys, and—did I say staying alive? That was the number one thing I thought about. By the time I'd reached the ripe old age of eighteen, to the best of my knowledge, things hadn't changed much. I did not muse upon my future. Yeah, when the war ended and I was left just hanging there with little more than a few bucks and the clothes on my back. I hung about on earth at, no kidding, the Sanc palace at Relena's invitation. She couldn't let a Gundam pilot troll the streets. That lasted two days. It was a poor fit for me. I was too loud and undomesticated. I was afraid to touch her upholstery. I was spinning in the halls with no place to sit. Call it free falling with nothing to solid and sure to grab hold of. Lucky for me, I had made an important friend with a really big net. Quatre asked what I wanted to do and I said the first thing that came to mind. "I could turn wrecked stuff on L2 into junk to sell." He lent me the dough to do it, including the airfare back to my home colony, and I made it work. I even paid him back to show how appreciative I'd been for the help. I didn't know about interest at the time, or I would have paid him that, too. He didn't have to do it. That's how I knew he was a real friend. The scrap yard kept me out of trouble and fed enough for me to live in the moment, but did not afford me luxuries like inter-colony travel. No war-time accumulated frequent-flyer miles for me to exploit. Giving up the business wouldn't be easy. "That is, if you haven't other plans?" None at all. Or, maybe it was easy to scrap the scrap. "Naw, junk's gotten boring. Okay, give me a month or so--." "Wonderful! Rashid will pick you up at the shuttle port, then. I can't wait!" Yep, I guess you could call Quatre Winner my best friend at the time. He and I had ended up on the same side fighting tooth and nail to win the war, he'd kept in touch and helped me get started on L2, but other than that we hadn't a thing in common—that I knew of. He was a truly nice guy with a home, hobbies, family, and business waiting for him to go back to when the dust settled and I, well, was not, obviously. I showed up in two weeks with a pocketful of money and a few bags. His mansion teemed with servants and sisters too many for me to keep their names straight. I had nothing to do but eat, sleep, and eat more. It was close to heaven, I figured. "I've never kissed anyone." He told me that out of the blue my first night in his house. We'd been playing cards and he just blurted that out. "Nobody my age, I mean." "So, um, how old are the people you've been kissing?" I asked. He thought that was hysterical. "Oh, silly Duo! Just old aunties." "Oh, okay, well, I've never been kissed. I guess we got some living to do, eh?" I hadn't had any experience with sex and found the topic rather dicey, enough to avoid talking about it with anyone. I mean, how many girls did I know? Not too many and only a couple who might let me get that close. And then he kissed me. It was a pretty gutsy thing for him to do. "There! Now we've done that!" He was jubilant and I was flabbergasted, if not a little turned-on. "Ah, ha, um, yeah." I know I was grinning, partly out of embarrassment and partly because his glee was catching. I hadn't thought about kissing another guy before. Not on the lips. It made me wonder. Quatre must have known me better than I did. I wondered how he knew I liked him that way, when I didn't know it; I might have just punched his lights out. "Oh, I could tell you liked me and I just wanted to see how it felt." He patted his chest and smiled. "My space heart knows." "Oh, so, ah, did that kiss count?" I asked. I did not want to tell him he was crazy; "space heart" my ass! For an answer, Quatre kissed me again, this time with his hands at my neck and in my hair. His tongue filled my mouth and tickled. After I got the hang of it, kissing was a really fun pastime. Quatre didn't stop at that. We showered together. That was fun. And he jerked me off. So I did the same for him. I was pretty pliant and amenable to just about any suggestion. I was all sexed up and ready to go. For the first time in my life, I was having blatant sexual fantasies. Despite my solo efforts, it seemed like I was in a condition of tireless arousal. Quatre's athletic frame and good looks had never been lost on me, but now it was all I could think about. My libido was taking complete control and Quat was beautiful and easy to desire that way. Over the next few days, he showed me that 69 wasn't just the number between 68 and 70, and shoved his pretty, pink prick up my ass more than once. I got to do him, too. That was mighty sweet. Yeah, with the discovery of sex I was convinced that there was more to life than shooting the bad guys-- like shooting the good guys. "Duo, what do you want to do, work-wise?" Now, that was a damn good question. Quatre wasn't afraid to ask questions. He told me that's what he was taught to do in school. I didn't tell him what I learned in school. I got used to being bullied because I was just a lowly orphan. I raised "oppressed" to an art form, and that just ain't nothing to be proud of. I was kinda proud that the other Gundam pilots had landed decent jobs, giving us all a good rep. We had heard that Wufei joined Lady Une in the Preventers organization, and that Heero had been assigned immediately to Relena's personal guard, an adjunct of the Preventers, but that he'd recently moved to head the larger Preventers security division. Trowa had left an offer from the Preventers hanging and twisting in the air, while he swung and flew through the air with the circus. Nobody had extended me any deals, though. "There's got to be something that interests you." I was thinking, "sex therapist," and grinned. He must have guessed I was thinking something along those lines, because he contributed his thoughts before I could share my droll reply. "Winner Corporation produces the metal used to build the satellite colonies. Currently, there is a massive amount of scrap material from damage caused by the war, and it's wildly cheaper to remanufacture that than to create new from raw materials. I set up Hilde Schbeiker with a job on L4 a month ago and she's been begging me to talk you into joining her there." "Hilde?" She was a great kid, er, woman. I could work with her. She even asked for me. "Well, I'll be. That was nice of her." Next thought, "What would I be doing?" "Great big equipment, tearing things apart, recycling, and sorting--." He smiled. "You could even get in some piloting to gather the salvage." "Piloting, eh? Man, you had me with 'great big equipment'! Heh, heh... Where do I sign up?" I must have made my friend happy, because he nearly split his face in two with his smile. He shook my hand, and said, "Your word on a handshake is all I need. We can take care of the details later, but let me show you photos of the living arrangements and tell you about the benefits and pay." So, I had a job and a place to live and a future of sorts. Quatre Winner was my best friend. I'd have defended him to the death. I was also going to miss him and the inventive sex he treated me to. "You'll come visit me, won't you?" I insisted on getting some firm dates that I could count on. As the time for my departure crept up, all my insecurities surfaced. Alone, unknown situations, alone, living on my own, no friends...alone, except for Hilde. Couldn't forget her! Hilde'd be there. That was something to hold on to. "Of course! At least once a month. I'd go out with you to show you around but I have another invitation I've been waiting for." "You heard from Trowa!" Trowa Barton was a secretive devil, but I knew if anyone could track him down and make him socialize, it was my dedicated friend, Quatre. "Yes. He has been helping out Catherine at the circus, where he hid out several times during the war." "Ah... he's got himself a girlfriend." Quatre laughed. "No! He says they are just friends; in fact, she thinks he could be her lost brother, Triton Bloom." "No shit!" "That's right. So, he's staying a few more weeks then he's reporting for an interview at Preventers. I think I can offer him something more suitable, though. We'll, see. He's invited me to try traveling with the circus a few days. It will be a real vacation for me." He was quick to add, "Not that having you here like this has been work or anything!" He kissed me as reassurance, and we both laughed. Still, I was the tiniest bit jealous. I hadn't thought of Quatre as my boyfriend. God, he wasn't my anything! Did guys even have boyfriends? I didn't know! I'd known about old men raping boys, pedophiles, but not same-sex lovers. And I was pretty sure brothers didn't do that stuff to each other. So what did that make us? I didn't know, but I knew I envied Trowa and didn't look forward to sharing Quatre with him. I didn't know if the two of them would have what Quat and I had had and I tried not to picture them getting it on. I was not in love—of that I was pretty sure. Quatre certainly wasn't in love with me. We were more... "in like." So, I had no claim to his heart. That didn't mean I wanted to give him up or go halves, but I couldn't stop him from wanting to. "Do you like Trowa?" I asked this knowing he knew what I meant. "I-I'll find out. I think... a little." That meant it depended upon whether or not Trowa liked him. "He's a good guy." That meant that I thought it was okay if they fell "in like" with each other. And, yeah, I conceded some kind of defeat. "I agree. I'm glad you think so, Duo. Thank you for telling me." We celebrated our understanding with a lot of sex. That meant we would always be friends. That we still liked each other. That we had a special bond. Later that week found me on L4, in my company-issue apartment next door to Hilde, and within walking distance to the scrap yard where we both worked. I already missed Quatre, but I owed him every good thing I had going for me. I hung up a calendar and marked the day he'd next visit. I could endure anything that long. No problem. I didn't expect my life would change as dramatically as it did after that. (o) The work exercised my brawn more than my mind, but then that left me with plenty brain power for thinking about other things. Quatre hadn't been kidding. I learned to operate some fucking humongous machinery. We were moving around and taking apart parts of colony scaffolding, superstructure, and sub-skin the size of the neighborhoods I once lived in on L2. I often wondered if I was carving up parts of Wufei's war-savaged L5 for re-forming into the new L5. Hilde liked the crane and had already trained on it so I trained only enough to back her up. For some reason everyone thought the fifteen-story cutting tool best suited me. It was like Deathscythe all over again, without the parts I was slicing attacking me in return. It was also tricky making certain the cut parts fell where I wanted them and not on someone's head. I got so I could laser-cut my name in each piece to leave my personal mark. I impressed the hell outta everybody. Hilde asked me out first. We had lunch most days together, so when she said, "Let's get dinner," I took that for a date. She dressed up and I dressed up as best as I could, which wasn't good enough for her, but had to do 'cause that's all I had. I was clean. We ate at a nice place, but it wasn't me. I was stopped at the door and handed a tie to wear -- dress code. No wine served to minors-- it's the law. At that point I decided that L4 was going to take some getting used to for me. I'd have to make a few adjustments. Which was okay. If anything, I was flexible and versatile. On L2 there were no age restrictions for anything. Most kids hadn't the money to buy non-essentials, and with all the vice on display that just wasn't at all attractive. I got away with most everything during the war wherever I was, except in the schools. Hanging out at the boarding schools, while waiting for mission assignments during the war, meant close supervision and rules, which I never really minded. I so rarely had rules to follow it made for a nice change. And it never lasted long. A few months at most and then back to the fighting. I missed hanging out with Quatre most of all. I didn't have to explain a thing about my past with him. I didn't have to pussyfoot around my needs either. Hilde was okay, since she knew I'd been a Gundam pilot, but she didn't get other things about me. Like sex. If I wanted it, Quat wanted it, and we did it. It was pretty simple. So, I checked off the days until he came and missed Quatre immensely. And then he came a day early, with Trowa. Gravity check! Gravity check! For a minute there, I was free falling in space. I wasn't so blind that I couldn't see Trowa liked Quatre and Quatre liked Trowa. Liked as in a BIG way. Christ, they were in love! Trowa was going to work in security for Quatre and stay with him, in his big house where I'd visited. And probably play in Quat's big bed, where he and I'd fooled around. I was happy for them both, really. It was just-- I could tell my sex-marathons-with-Quatre days were over. I was pleased they visited me, though. After Trowa and Quatre left, Hilde and I started going out regularly. This was more of a friendship thing. We worked in the same yard, but rarely ran into one another. We lived next door to one another, but kept different hours. She bought a TV and then we started hanging out more together. The rest of the crew started to notice. "Hey, Duo! I think your girlfriend's ready to go. Call it a day." "Who? Oh, hi, Hilde, be right with ya." And that is how I got a girlfriend. Things started to change a little at a time. Patterns formed. Work divided sharply from the rest of the day. We timed out together and picked up take-out together and watched movies together. We lived separately, but shared most of our free time. And in that free time, she taught me how to cook a few things and I taught her how to kiss, for starters. We both liked to kiss and cuddle. Sex didn't have to be a competitive contact sport. It could be more of win-win situation. At first when I closed my eyes I saw Quatre there, but after awhile that just faded and I saw dark hair and her greyer blue eyes. It took some time to get her to want to touch my chest. Touching is real nice and feels good, whether a guy or girl is doing it. Her fingernails were cut short and her hands nearly as soft as Quatre's. After awhile I stopped comparing the two. But it took a while, because all my experience had been with him and after the kissing part the differences became more noticeable. For one thing, when she let me touch her breasts, the relationship turned sexual and I discovered that she didn't like to have her nipples rolled. Quatre had. I was at a loss for what to do with them so I concentrated on massaging. She seemed happy with that, and so we progressed an inch at a time. Showering together failed. Her hair was smartly cut short. My hair was all over the place. She couldn't deal with it out of a braid. Frankly, I didn't blame her either. After all, that's why I wore it tied back all the time. So, messing around in the water wasn't going to spice up our sex life. The next trial was also peppered with failure. She did not get the hang of cock sucking. She tended to treat my dick like a teat and milk me. I played instructor and she played the obstinate pupil. In the end, she figured I might as well "just stick it in already." Okay. That part was easier than with Quatre, because with girls, and enough foreplay, the entry hole was somewhat self-lubricating, and more accessible. I was a little rusty, but it's mostly instinctual. It felt really good. We added a few variations and messed around about once a week. So, I figured I liked sex whether it was with a guy or a girl, and since that gave me a pretty big playing field I figured it had to be a huge bonus. I liked Hilde almost as much as I'd liked Quatre. I didn't mention my using her to get over my infatuation with Quat—I had that much sense—but not much more. It probably would have been smart to have told her I had once had something going on with him, had I been a bit more experienced about life and feelings and people. But— I was contented and kind of a jerk. And I liked the work on L4. Life was pretty solid. I lived and worked in one place for weeks on end for the first time in my life. I wasn't sure I was ready to give up my drifter way of life, but it was comfortable to have a roof over my head, to know when and where my next meal was coming from, and to be doing it on my own, mostly. I might have settled into this new L4 lifestyle permanently, except for a bit of karma. Funny thing about karma. It could look bad at the onset and yet be a gift. Such was the job request that came one day. They needed someone who could pilot and use robotic machinery. I fit the ticket exactly. It was, in fact, as if the job request had been written for me precisely. I didn't miss the chance to fly again, so I nabbed it up without too much deep analysis as to why I was so lucky. (o) My first piloting job was to L5 to salvage gigantic trusses that spanned miles, cut them to size, and then transport them back for re-processing. There was enough work on L5 for me to stay two weeks at a time, before dragging my loaded transport back to L4. I needed a place to time-share on L5, and, surprise, surprise, Quatre wrote me about that the next day. "Contact this number. Looking for roommate. Knows you.—QRW" Knows me? Who on L5 knew me, I wondered? There was only one way to find out, so I called the number. "Record your message at the sound of the beep." Yep, that was the phone message I got. A mechanical voice, not one the guy or girl created. I left a fine, info-filled message that would tell the person on the other end of the line a little bit about me. The personal touch. "Hey! I'm leaving a message 'cause you're not there. I, ah, need a place to hang my hat half the month. I gotta job so I can pay rent and expenses and shit. So, ah, if you're still interested in renting out a room, call me." I received a message later that day, which was direct, to the point, and a whole lot less wordy than mine had been. It didn't give away much, but at least it was human and male: "Come by after 8," and then there was the address. There was interference and other voices in the background, making the voice hard to identify. I found the lackluster building and rang at the security door at eight-oh-one. Mystery man buzzed me up. I had, in fact, visualized Wufei opening the door. It was L5 and I always thought he'd end up back on the colony now under construction. He might have had an excuse to have part time work in the area, and he knew me. I couldn't imagine him wanting me to share his space, though. He and I weren't close team mates during the war. You might go as far as saying we weren't even friendly. It was not Chang Wufei. "Heero!" No way in hell had I been expecting "never smile if you can frown" Heero Yuy to be looking for a roommate on L5. I didn't see a gun in his hand, but that didn't mean it wasn't there! Be nice and run, Duo my boy. "Wrong place! Sorry, man." The floor fell away, and beneath my feet was a fucking, gaping abyss. I was free falling to my death one moment, and I would have made it home free, had he not clamped down on my shoulder and dragged me inside his place. "Idiot. Get in here." "Eep!" He had a gun. In his shoulder holster. Visible over his unbuttoned shirt. "Coffee, right?" He offered me a drink, my favorite, and turned his back on me to go get it. His back! I could have shot him dead, maybe. "Yeah, thanks. Ah, nice place." And it was as nice a place as mine. I don't lie, outright. "It's substandard, but par for the area." "Right." I would not argue with an armed Heero Yuy. Why, Quatre, why? I thought we were friends. "Winner contacted Preventers headquarters for an available room, and Commander Une patched him through to me." "Oh." That answered my unspoken question. "What are you--?" "Security. Overseeing the reconstruction. Six months on, six off. Chang and I trade off." "That's nice." "I needed a change of duty." "Oh." Heero gave me a curt nod. "The coffee should be done." My conversation skills were non-existent, matching his nicely. I was already fitting in! I watched as he stalked to the kitchen and returned, two mugs in hand. I reached for the yellow one with the balloons and let him keep the black one. It seemed more polite. He frowned. No, his frown deepened. "Wrong one? Sorry, I thought you'd like the black." His face softened and I saw the tiniest up-curve in the corner of his mouth. "I thought the same. It doesn't matter. The drink's the same. Sit." My knees buckled on command and I sat, hard on the couch. He handed me the black mug and sat on the chair opposite. We both took turns sipping our coffees and looking furtively at one another over the brim. "You look good." It would have been grammatically correct to say "well" but I think I meant what I said. Heero had always been a good-looking hunk of male animal. Girls were attracted to him all the time. It was that "I have better things to do" air he had about him that they liked. At the moment, I was thinking that he really, really looked stunning- the euphemism I'd come up with for what I was really thinking. "Thanks, so do you. How long are you here for?" I guess I was staying? "Two weeks, is my guess, then back to L4 for two, then back here for two then back...for... two... and so on." He had gotten the gist right off. No need to ramble on and on, but I did just the same. "L4. I thought you would have gone back to L2." "Not willingly! Heh, heh..." I gulped more coffee, which was now lukewarm. "Quatre found me a job on L4 at a Winner company scrap yard kinda place. Got lots of useless colony substructure floating around? Then I'm your man." I stopped my running monologue with a flood of rapidly chilling coffee. "You always were a scrapper." A scrapper was both what we scrap-collector-recycler-garbage guys call ourselves, and a determined fighter, and, yes, I was a scrapper, but imagining that Heero made a joke... I choked, spitting coffee all over my shirt. My only shirt to date that was clean and not in a bag in a hotel room. Not any more. "Jesus Christ, Yuy! Next time you're gonna joke, warn me." He seemed pleased to be making me look like a fool. "Did you bring anything with you?" Does it look like it, asshole? I wiped off my chin with the end of my braid. "Just me. Stuff's back at the hotel. I didn't know... I wasn't sure..." "Want a tour?" "Yeah." But that wasn't what I was having a problem wrapping my head around. Heero Yuy was offering to share his place part-time with me? I followed him to the kitchen, turned around, hopped back into the front room, opened a door to have a look-see into a bathroom. "Here's the bedroom." And just like that, he gave me another BIG problem to consider. "Just the one?" I had to ask. Heero leafed through a neat stack of t-shirts, selected one, and tossed it in my direction. I caught it mid air, wondering if he expected me to strip immediately. I met his searching gaze. He looked stricken. "Winner indicated that you wouldn't mind." Mind what? Sharing a room? A bed? Is there really only one bed? Quatre, you fucking prick! "Winner? Oh." Well, damn Quatre's pretty little ass. Playing loose and fancy-free with my reputation, was he? But maybe he thought we'd be trading weeks? Yes, that was it! I'd think about what we were doing when we were both sharing the place, the room, the bed... like tonight... I'd deal with that later. "No, that's okay." Relief washed Yuy's face like a spray from the fancy showerhead I noticed his bathroom sported. Okay—it was later. The problem of where I'd be sleeping until Heero left still remained. Couch? I'd slept on worse and it would save on expenses, which, I'd finally decided, had to be at the foundation of all this. "I can take you to your hotel to get your things." Better than waiting an hour for a taxi. "Dinner, too? My treat," I added out of habit, because Hilde had always liked it when I paid. "Fine." Heero Yuy drove a hot, little, shiny, black ASTRA 780 two-seater sports car that was maybe two months off the dealer's lot. I ran a hand over the real leather interior, caressed the real wood dashboard, and gasped. I sank into the low seat, rubbed my butt on the buttery leather, and groaned. I threw my arms over the back of the head rest, stretched out, and moaned. I didn't even try to conceal how I felt. "Sexy." I may have said that too loudly, but it was true. That car was sex on wheels. "Absolutely." I opened my eyes and Heero was staring directly at me, so I clarified what I'd said. "I meant this car is really cool." "I meant you." "Ah—Oh." His face was turned away or he would have noticed how I'd gone into shock and opened the window for fresh air or something. Instead, he was occupied with starting the car. He fiddled with gages and gadgets, adjusted air conditioning and the speakers for music, and opened a window in the roof. Me? I was sitting there in my coffee-splotched shirt cradling his clean white t-shirt like a baby, feeling oh-so not cool and not sexy. He jammed it into reverse, pealed out of his parking space, whipped us around, squealed the tires as he ripped out of the underground parking garage, and tore off down the empty street like a bat out of hell. With the volume revved up, the music soared, the engine roared. "Gotta one way ticket to hell and back, gotta one way ticket to he-ell... and back!" The Darkness wailed their banshee cries. "Gotta one way ticket to hell and back, gotta one way ticket to he-ell... and back!" I was falling, falling, free falling. I was sure Quatre was the devil and I'd sold my soul to him to get where I was. And I didn't really care. Sorry, Quat for thinking ill of you. Heero's voice brought me up fast by my shorts. "Which one?" I opened my eyes and stared out at the hotel district. "That one." There were only two hotels in this precinct. The other was more first class. I hadn't even presumed to choose it, although Quatre probably wouldn't have given it a second thought if I had. Heero waited in the car, engine rumbling in discontent. It wanted to go, go, go. I dashed in, grabbed my bags, changed my coffee-splattered shirt for a once-worn, no-spots shirt, and checked out. I nearly pushed out the door when I realized that I was still carrying around Heero's t-shirt like a comfort blanket. Then I wondered if Heero would be pissed if I didn't wear his t-shirt, so standing there in the lobby, I ripped off the button-down, yanked on Heero's white tee and then jammed my arms back into the shirt. Flapping cuffs irritated me, so I rolled the sleeves to the elbow and left it unbuttoned. There. See? I'm wearing your damned shirt. And mine. Back at the car, Heero had on a navy blue blazer. Where had that come from? Memories of dates long past, me wearing restaurant-issued ties and coats, rushed by like a depressing flipbook. Ah, shit! "Do I need a sports coat to get in?" Heero winced. I hated the whine edging into my voice, too. He removed his coat and flung it backwards. "No." "Thanks. You didn't have to dress down for me." "No trouble." I received a smug smile for all my trouble. I wedged my bag behind the seat, melted into my fits-me-like-a-glove bucket seat, and then we rocketed off into the wild blue beyond. "You look good." He said this and I figured he'd noticed how I'd incorporated his t-shirt into my ensemble. "Thanks." "Can you wait an hour to eat?" "Hour? Hell, yeah. I can wait a day, why?" "Best steak house is a ways off." A hundred miles. He left just enough time for the chef to sear both sides of my very rare steak. Plate delivered front and center one hour to the minute. "Damn, this is good." It was, so I told him so. He smiled. "Need a car like that to make it worth it." "Oh, it's worth it. It's all worth every fucking penny." Heero laughed. I made him laugh. I laughed too. I drew a long drink of water. I was sticking to water for my liquid of choice. I couldn't mess up too badly with just water spills. But then I forgot about my big mouth. "Yeah, young, rich and fabulous." "You think I'm fabulous?" He smiled when he asked me that. Now, how was I to answer? "Well, your car sure is!" He laughed louder. Man, too bad he was going to have to go soon. Six months on, six off. I could get to like living with this Heero Yuy. "You can drive it home, if you want." "If I want? IF?! Yeah, I guess I might want to get behind the wheel of your sweet ride. Yeah, thanks. That means a lot, ya know? You trusting me that much." "You always were the best pilot. Quick reflexes. Smart choices." Really? Me? I was really going to miss not having this Heero around. "Actually, Trowa was. He had the best hit-record too. Quatre kept records like that, you know? Ah, so... If I drive real good, do I get to keep the keys?" He didn't answer that. Big mistake. So, I backpedaled into a hole. "I mean, since you're going and leaving the car behind, right? I just thought maybe I could borrow it. Ah... just until I get me something. I don't have a car here. Not yet. I don't have one back on L4 either, but that's another story. I live walking distance to work and everything I need, and so far I haven't needed much, which is good because I haven't saved enough to buy a car. Then there's insurance—" "Are you finished?" With dinner, with what I was saying, with digging the deepest hole I could in order to fall in and disappear from sight forever? "Um--?" "With your meal." "Yes." He caught the waiter by the arm, and said, "Check, please, and a couple doggie-bags." Who'da thought Heero saved a dime eating leftovers? "I don't know if I'll get much of a lunch break at work tomorrow. This saves time." "Yeah." I watched him divvy up the remainders of our dinners into two cartons, bag them, and then shove some bills onto the table and stand. I saw the car keys sailing above the table in time to catch them carefully so as not to knock over a candle or the vase of flowers. Wait, I was going to pay! "This was gonna be my treat, 'Ro." "Next time. Let's just go." "Okay, if there's time while you're still here it'll be my turn." It was dark out. I found the seat belt and the starter on the first try, and that was about it. Heero had to help me locate the car lights and the myriad of adjustments and bells and whistles to set before we could go. After that, I had it all under control. I could backtrack out the way we came in, and when I hit the highway, I let her rip. He had his seat adjusted back and his eyes were closed. I couldn't read the guy at all. He didn't look worn out. He never did. Was he happy? Full, maybe. Frustrated? Yeah, I'd probably said something that ticked him off and he was being kind. I shoulda just let resting Yuys lie, but I couldn't shut up. "Heero? You okay?" "Long day, that's all." "Sorry you had to tack on me to the end of it." "Not the problem." "Thanks, 'Ro." I wanted to brush the bangs back and rub his temples, but I didn't dare enter his private space, until invited, if ever. "My pleasure." He sighed. "Duo, I'm not leaving L5 for at least five months. I thought I made that clear." He had said that. Six months on, and then trade with Chang back at the Sanc headquarters. I was the one on the 2-week plan. "Yep." "So, there will be plenty of opportunities to go out." And then what? Share a bed? I wondered for the nth timewhat Quatre had told him about me? What was Heero expecting? Was Quatre sharing me out to first Hilde and now Heero? Was I Winner's rent boy or something? Oh, Hilde, you need company? Duo's good for a roll and I've got him all broken in! Heero? Are you lonely? Duo won't take up much room. He's cheap, easy to impress, and has a willing, hot ass. "Duo, you all right?" "Ah, okay, I guess." "I was saying that I have a squad car for use at the agency. You can drop me off there on your way to work. Call me when you get off." "Really? Oh, okay." "No need for you to get a car that way." Here I was worrying about sharing a bed with him, and he was solving my transportation problems. Had he not figured out the real dilemma? We weren't children. Sharing a bed at our age meant something more than just sleeping together. Or was that just me? Was I reading too much into this? Maybe Heero just wanted to save on heating bills. Possibly. I had an active imagination. Very active. My imagination just warped into hyper drive. "Get off," was all I wanted to do, and with Heero Yuy. My brain actually could detach itself from my dick, with a certain amount of trouble, but not at the moment. A/N: One Way Ticket by The Darkness
TBC
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