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"Greeting Cards"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: Yaoi, funeral practices, AU, fluff Pairings: 1+4, 1x2x1, 3+H, 5xH, 3x4, 6x9 Summary: Each chapter is based on Heero’s
greeting cards and Duo's mortuary. "Greeting Cards "
Chapter 17 -- Note Cards, Part 4 Oh, no! Trowa didn't accept teasing well. I should have known better. He's so quiet and retreating at times I forgot he was that way for a reason—he didn't want to be the center of attention. I relished it, he didn't. He just kissed me too! He took a chance and I made fun of him. "Trowa! Hold up!" But I was shouting to Trowa' retreating back. "Slow down! Stop! I'm sorry." I caught up to him and continued to apologize. "Trowa, I'm sorry, really. Believe me, please. I'm sorry I made a scene. I mean it! I'm truly sorry I laughed at you. Please slow down and talk." Trowa slowed down, but he didn't stop walking. We had been having such a great time together and I hated for misunderstandings to ruin it all, no matter who was the temperamental one—him or me. I wanted to explain. "You see, I was the youngest and the only brother with many, many sisters, so I grew up taking all kinds of ribbing all the time. I forget you were practically an only child. It must have been lonely." He recognized a propitiatory gesture when he heard it, and cooled off immediately. "Sorry. Just needed some space." "That's okay. It was my fault." And then his eyes changed as I stared into them. I allowed my empathy to kick in fully and I could tell he was looking inside and back into his past. Where a void had been memories flooded in and I could feel him fighting to keep his head above it all and communicate. It was a painful and wondrous and terribly frightening experience. "Trowa? Relax. I'm here." He acknowledged me and took a deep breath or two first. "It's okay. I remember something...when I was a kid." I rested my hand on his shoulder, and steered him off to the side, away from traffic, into the doorway of a closed storefront. He stood there breathing hard. "Take your time. So much of our emotional development gets formed when we are young and its effects over time can be far-reaching." He nodded, and then he started talking. "Yeah, guess so. It's just weird not knowing then knowing... just like that." "So, what did you remember this time?" I felt so close to him when he was open like this. Of course, he probably felt vulnerable, but I think we were forming a bond of trust that helped. He searched my eyes for support and I gave it with the best smile I could muster. "Well, I guess as a kid I was spoiled rotten and neglected at the same time for the most part. I was on my own most the time. My parents were both working so I stayed with this 'Doctor S.' It was crappy when I was little, but after awhile I liked the freedom and the stuff." We just stared at one another, Trowa's eyes owlish. "You really do remember?" I said in a whisper, afraid to break the mood. He just nodded. The realization that real childhood memories were coming back was overwhelming him, I could tell. I could feel the emotions rolling off him then spinning around in eddies on and on. "I lived in a giant laboratory." "That, that's good, I mean, that's good that you're remembering. What else?" But it was too much to process, I think. He just shook his head. I thought I'd help him along by sharing a little about myself. "I was born in a lab, too. A very difficult birth that my mother didn't live through." "Oh? Um, I'm sorry ..." I swallowed hard. "Things work out, Trowa." I took his hand and held it firmly until he squeezed back. "Things will work out, I just know it." "How do you know that anyway? You a mind reader now?" "Okay, I don't know, but I believe we make our own destinies." "Says the inheritor of a fortune," Trowa snapped, but from the haunted look in his eyes I knew he regretted it instantly. "Sorry, I take that back. You're trying to make me feel better." "Trying to make you feel better about yourself!" I watched as Trowa' eyes softened. He looked lost in thought, so I gave him a quiet moment. Trowa's face darkened again. "You're thinking about something from your past," I ventured to draw out his story a little at the risk of being cut off. "I was suddenly struck with the difference between how you and my few other close friends treat me and what I remember of my own family. I remember getting one card for my birthday. My parents sent me a single card. One damned card! That's all they ever gave me! And I don't know what I did with it or what happened to it. Or to them!" The sudden switch in subjects and his intensity and anger caught me off guard, but I listened. "How could a mother not care about her son?" he asked me. That raw anguish, the feeling of abandonment was cutting. It hurt me! "I don't know, Trowa. Maybe you didn't live with them for very long. Maybe she was distant by nature? Some people are just that way and aren't expressive." Like you much of the time. "I never wanted to admit to myself that she didn't love me." "And you shouldn't! You were a child and uninformed. You may have felt left out, but she loved you. They both loved you. Your parents must have cared deeply or they wouldn't have provided for you." "What do you mean?" "Catherine was a child, when you joined her in the circus, right? She couldn't have afforded to provide for you and the circus wouldn't have taken just anyone in, especially charity cases. That means along with you must have come a settlement. The circus folks must have been paid. And later you attended an expensive university, so they must have left you an inheritance to draw from." "That's... possible. One I don't remember? That's...something I never considered." "Well, if in doubt, always follow the money trail." I felt him calm down. "Tell me about Catherine." "Catherine, she's a cousin, but to me more of a sister. She was my best friend at the circus. She was the one who told me my parents had died and that's why I was sent to live with her in the circus. " "Death was the final and most absolute abandonment. Oh, Trowa, I do understand. And I know Duo suffers from fears of being left behind and rejection. He was never adopted from the orphanage he grew up in, did you know that?" "No." "He doesn't know I know and I'm not telling you how I know because you'd get the wrong idea—" "He talks in his sleep." "Why...yes, he does." The temptation to ask Trowa how he knew that little detail was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it quick as a bunny. He could ask me the same thing. "It happened at the movies, He fell asleep and he started talking. I figured out what he was talking about and then woke him up and made him go home." "I knew you weren't in bed together, Quatre. I believed you when you told me you guys... hadn't. Ah..." He smiled fractionally. '"Must have been one hellova movie." "French film festival on the Sanc campus," I said receiving an eye roll in return. Obviously my poor choice for something to take Duo to, but I hadn't known him well at the time. "He didn't make it through 'L'avocat de la Terreur.'" "A documentary with about communists?" Trowa snorted. "Too slow. You would have done better taking him later to see some hot action in 'Les Amitiés Maléfiques'." "Y-you like French films?" I was amazed. "Mais oui?" He was teasing me now, I could tell, for underestimating him. "My point is," I had to get Trowa back on track and not thinking about me and Duo. "Fear of abandonment is hard to get over, but maybe if we learned more about you? Oh, I know you've tried, but I can help." "Go on." "Well for instance, the circus in the L3 area isn't far from here. It's possible that you even lived close to Nova. We can find out where the circus camps are or were six or so years ago. Visit any of them, if you like?" "Yeah, and I'm beginning to think there's something to that. It could explain a few things." His beautiful sad eyes met mine. "Would you go with me?" "Of course I'd do that. Nothing could stop me. You're coming to grips with all this and I want to be there with you all the way." "Yeah, thanks. Nothing I can do about it tonight, so, to quote Duo, 'What the hell. I should have fun,' right?" "That's the idea," I agreed, sharing a quick smile with him. We resumed our leisurely walk. As we approached a small crowd of garishly dressed young people waiting to enter a club, Trowa had to get closer to read the name above the door. Written in an old fashioned script in white lettering on black, and under-lit with a yellow light, the sign read: The Cavern. "So, what do you think Heero and Duo are doing right now?" I asked. "Probably eating, having a good time. They'll be relaxed, well rested and bored, ready for Sunday's play practice." "That's boring?" "Maybe. Duo likes action and lots of it. His idea of a good time would be skydiving, if he could afford it." Trowa looked me over for the hundredth time. I just knew this outfit was the right one to wear! "I'll bet you collected stamps as a kid," I said. Trowa looked at me askance. "Are you saying I'm boring?" "You're cautious. What makes you think collecting stamps is boring, anyway?" "Well, the circus traveled from place to place. It was something to collect. Yeah, I actually did," he admitted, which set me off laughing again. "Don't ask why I'd remember a stupid thing like that." This time, Trowa just sighed, folded his arms protectively over his chest, and asked, "So, why doesn't everyone just go in instead of standing outside, speaking of boring?" "The Cavern is an exclusive club. They're waiting for the door to open. That tall thin man is Gabriel, whose job it is to ID kids and admit only those on 'the register,' which is a mysterious list he keeps in his head. Next to him is Spauld, the bouncer. If Gabriel gives you the okay, then you get in, but if not, you'd better leave or you'll meet the hard end of Spauld." "Will we get in?" "You're dressed for battling your way in," Trowa said with a wry smile. "But he won't know me, or what if he does from some ugly past incident that's put me off his list? Would you help me beat up Spauld to get in?" "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Would it keep your life from being boring?" Trowa elbowed me in the ribs. I was in a good mood and so was he. I really appreciated his unflappable side. "All right, I'm sure he will adore you, just wait." Trowa sneaked looks at the other kids around him and noticed that they were all as adorned with heavy eye makeup he and I. That made him feel better about his own ornamentations—I could feel it. And then Gabriel spotted us. Gabriel was my height, but he was dangerously slim and had an unhealthy coloring, like someone who smoked and partied nightly. "Kitty-cat! What'sup, dude?" "I'm doing well. You?" "Tight, man. Ohmygods! I love him! Is this boy for real? Where did you find him? He is absolutely precious. Can he sing?" Gabriel would have continued to gush over Trowa for some time, had I'd let him. "Trowa, this is Gabriel, part-owner of the club." "Call me Gabby..." "And this is Trowa. I'd like to show him a classy place." I stepped closer to the entrance and stuffed a one hundred dollar bill into the man's hand. "That ought to handle the cover charge. We haven't much time." "Oh, of course you can take him in. Go on, go on. I'll find you at break," Gabriel waved us past the herd. A wave of complaints followed as kids excluded from entering made their sentiments clear. Trowa was about to express his resentment at being singled out in that manner, I guessed, when we were sucked into a velvet darkness of the narrow entry. I nudged him a few steps, where he was forced to turn, and then stopped. He had to adjust to the change in light, beginning with the haunting illumination coming from the enormous bar, which was lit solely with tiny twinkling lights behind glass etched in the shapes of underground stalactites and blue neon tubes spelling out The Cavern above the gleaming black counter. I tapped him on his shoulder and pointed in the other direction. He gasped in awe; his attention drawn to a mesmerizing dance floor, dimly lit from beneath with sulphurous-hued lights that pulsated in rhythm with the music's beat. The floor reminded me of a deep underground mineral pool which was wide where we could see it, and then branched off, flowing in multiple directions, like the arms of an octopus. Seating appeared to be carved out of the rock-face interior, giving patrons private caves to hide in or larger gathering places for parties. "There are several rooms, one has the stage and band and the music gets piped all over," I told him. "There's a band?" Trowa asked, his eyes already dancing with the music. "Oh, yeah. The cover charge pays for the band and gives them control over their clientele. What do you want to do first?" "See the band," Trowa answered me without a moment's thought. (o) "Do you like that band?" I asked. Trowa seemed drawn to music, but so far, I hadn't been able to talk him onto the dance floor. "They're great. Too loud, but good. I'm having the time of my life. Thanks, Quatre, for putting up with me." "Oh, pooh. There's nothing to 'put up with' as you put it. This has all been my pleasure, but I think that if we move to one of the other rooms, one of them is liable to have the sound system turned lower so we don't have to shout to me heard." "Oh, yeah? Sounds chill." I took him by the hand this time and guided him to another, quieter part of the club. "So..." Trowa looked up at me and met my eyes. "So?" "Wanna dance?" Trowa' voice caught in his throat. "Um..." He wasn't ready to be that gay, I guessed. I pulled him closer to me. "Or, if you want, I could get us some girls. Come on. Oh, and did I tell you that it's 'Trans Nite'?" "Ah, no. What's 'Trans' night?" But I just laughed and loped on ahead, leaving Trowa to weave his own way through the crowd. Gay bar or not, not many guys were dancing together and I didn't want to push my luck with Trowa. For all I knew, he had some bad dating memories that could surface. Once we were alone tonight, we'd settle our preference question in bed, or at least that was my naughty plan. I collected a group of girls to join us and we all fooled around and did crazy moves trying to out stupid one another. After we danced enough to work up a thirst and our dance partners had disappeared into the murky depths, I excused myself to the men's room. While I was gone, Trowa apparently took it upon himself to order up a drink for himself. That man needs me to look out for him and he knows it! He's the type to get seduced by the colorful drinks. And blondes in leather, apparently. (o) "May I help you?" asked the young waitress. "Ah... sure. I'd like one of those." I pointed to a tall glass of poisonous blue. I was thirsty and it fit the bill. "A Blue Lagoon? Sweet. Would you like this delivered to a table?" I was stumped a moment, then noticed an empty one not far away. If Quatre could secure tables I could too. He'd find me. "That one, please." "Okay! I'll be right back with that drink, sir." I slipped into the stone-look booth flooded with pleasure at my first independent move on the Nova club scene -- with my new boyfriend. "Here ya go, and I brought you an order of nachos and 'skins'. Interested?" I was. I paid for the drink and accepted the house munchies with some degree of apprehension. I mean 'skin'? I did a cursory examination of a 'skin' and found an absence of pores and hair; it was, in fact, a fried potato peel, very good and very salty. They called them 'peels' in Sanc and my memory hadn't jogged to help me out this time. The drink was cold, sweet, alcoholic, and gone in three long swallows. One drink didn't quench my thirst, so I ordered another, and another. Somewhere in between, I consumed a basket of pretzel sticks and bowl of salted peanuts, and then the third drink hit me. Quatre appeared magically and jabbed a finger at the just-emptied glass at my elbow. "What's that?" "Blue La-goon," I muttered. "No, that was the first one. This was... Orange...orange..." Quatre sniffed the glass, "Orange rum, orange Curacao, pineapple juice, orange juice, which might make it an Orange-utan. That's my guess. You're going to be sick." "I already am." Quatre directed me to the men's room and told me he'd check in on me later. I wasn't a novice. I was stupid. I needed a caretaker, I guess, and mine had only been gone a few minutes. How pathetic. Nothing like making a great impression. After emptying my stomach the hard way, I started feeling better. I washed my mouth and hands and stared in the mirror. At least I hadn't smeared my eyeliner! I was staring at the door, when Quatre walked in, and asked, "How's it going?" "Better." "It's okay," Quatre said. "I thought I was doing well, but managed to develop a headache." "You want to go?" I smiled. Quatre met my eyes. "I took an aspirin. I'll be fine, but yes, I would. We can come back again." "Cool." Decision made, we walked out of the men's room. Quatre, I thought, looked rather pasty; his lips paler than usual. I ran down a taxi for the short ride back to the hotel. It was the kind of thing I could do for him that he'd appreciate, and I didn't mind sitting so close to him my hand brushed his bare thigh. The golden hairs tickled the back of my hand and that's about all I could think about. I guess having done the taxi thing gave me the right to lead him to our room, zip my keycard to unlock the door, and allow him to enter first while flipping on the lights. And once the door closed behind us, I was wrapped in Quatre. Leather spicy aftershave, sweat, and Quatre. "I could use a shower. Want to join me?" he asked. He'd asked me to strip down naked and shower with him, just like that! We'd kissed once! Where had all his earlier inhibitions gone to, I wondered, but not for long. I knew a good deal when I had one undressing in front of me. "This strap has been cutting into my shoulder all night, See?" Oh, yeah, I saw. "That's too bad." "You should get out of that hot shirt," he told me. "Yeah," I agreed. I should do that, and I did as I watched the buckles unclasp and the leather fall to his feet. He was nicely defined with flat rounded pecs with tiny nipples and a nice flat stomach. He was almost completely hairless, but I could just make out some hair beneath his armpits, and maybe a little bit on his stomach, but other than that his faintly tanned body was smooth, well... apart from his legs, which were lengthening right before my eyes. "I don't know how girls do it. I think it was too chilly for this kilt." He looked up and his calculating gaze raked over my chest. I felt measured and assessed, but then the way I was looking him over was pretty deliberate, too. He smiled playfully, and shimmied out of the kilt. It landed on the floor with a thump. All he had on were those tiny, black briefs. So small his erection was showing nosing its way out the top. "Brr..." I should warm him up, I decided. All that expanse of Quatre-skin and I had to touch it. I crossed the few feet between us. When he turned away and toward the bathroom, I could make out his nice, round backside through his tiny, black briefs, and I could feel my hard-on about to rip open my pants. I caught him be the arm and pulled him closer. "Mine," I whispered. I kissed a red spot on his shoulder blade where the leather had irritated the skin. My arms encircled Quatre's waist from behind. "So good." There was nothing like holding that hot body against mine, except I had on too many clothes. "Trowa," he moaned softly. "I feel so ...weak." "It's OK, I've got you," I whispered softly back into his ear. As his head fell back, my warm breath moistened his neck. My arms slid forward and wrapped around the front of Quatre's upper body in a sensual, caressing hug. As the strength drained out of his body, my arms loosened, I was strong enough to support him, but I loved the gentle friction across my body as he slowly slid down through my grasp. As my fingers slid slowly from Quatre's waist over his torso, he moaned so loudly that I worried if maybe it was more than Quatre could take? It was all giving me an incredibly pleasurable feeling. Was I intentionally letting him fall, just distracted by the overwhelming sensuousness, or just trying to gently ease him down to the floor? "Feels so good...," Quatre whispered as he went completely limp. He added his hands over mine as they slid over his body and down under his briefs and over his erection, and gave another sexy moan. I took that as an invitation to touch more and cupped his pink balls. They instantly tightened against his body. "Oh, Trowa! I'm...I'm..." And then I watched him writhe through what had to have been an extremely pleasurable release. To Hell with the shower! I scooped him off the floor and tumbled him on the bed, a little rough, but he was heavy and mostly legs. "Stay put," I barked hoarsely. "I'm kinda sticky..." he pointed out. "Yeah." With a zip and a tug I offed my jeans and shorts. There could be time for slow and sensuous another time. Quatre solved his problem by kicking off the covers and wiping down with a sheet corner. His head lolled to the side to watch my progress. I caught his eyes widen when I put a knee on the bed. His hand snaked out and stroked my erection. "You're huge!" I'm not really, but there is no man on the planet who doesn't like to hear that. "Your hands are small," I told him. And then I kissed him like I meant it. If I'd had to watch those lovely lips move a moment longer I might have gone mad with wanting. He never left his grip on my dick. It was as if once he saw it he couldn't get enough of it. That was so hot. So was his tongue, muscling into my mouth. I'd never been kissed so aggressively. It made me hotter and start plunging, pumping into his hand, craving the friction. "Oh, God, Quatre!" I could pull in and out and my entire body was shaking, squirming like a fish caught on a hook. "Let me..." I wanted in him so bad. His hand left my dick so he could use it to maneuver around and get some leverage. We wrestled around for position, all the while deepening our kiss and maintaining full body contact. He flipped us. He was rock hard and ready for action. On top! I bet Quatre had never even considered I might want to be on top. Every thing so far has gone exactly as planned for him, after all. And what were the odds that we'd both be sexually dominant? Deep in my subconscious I knew I'd never bottomed for anybody. I had the creeping suspicion that if I let Quatre take over now, I might never keep him in place. I should have known he'd be an assertive personality and want to top me. We were going to have to negotiate for the right. And, God help me, we would have to learn to trade off, too. Or just let me win. Yeah, sure. We ended up on our sides, nose to nose. "I can't believe this." Quatre was stumped. "What are we doing? What's... all this about?" "I want...you." "Me? But...but...!" I stroked his hair down to his chin. "Yes. You." I could tell he was thinking this turn of events over, proving my theory that he was used to things falling into place for him and that he thought he was in control here in bed. I turned the tables on him. "Quatre, you can't get your way all the time, and this is one of those times." "I don't understand what you mean. We're in bed, fooling around. You don't want that?" The little minx was cunningly messing with my head while dotting my neck with little kisses between words. He ran his fingers up and down my legs. My brain fogged over. "Yeah." What was my point? "And I came prepared." "But...!" "Not that we have to... use anything. We don't have to unless you want." "What I want?" "I'll make it good for you. It can just be more sex... or we can make love," I told him, and got his undivided attention. "I've never gone this far. Ever." "I have, but I don't remember it." And we both laughed. "That hardly counts!" he said, giggling. "I have an idea." I had to stop asking and start doing. This wasn't the time for first-time, penetration sex. Neither of us had the stamina to last more than a couple minutes at anything. I swung a leg around so that my feet were where my head had been. I reoriented myself on my side but with my face in his crotch and raised his leg over my shoulder. I didn't wait for him to catch on. He was a smart guy. He could figure it out. I didn't know if he would like giving me a blowjob, but I was game to try. If he copied what I did to him, he'd do just fine. When I licked his dick, he cried out my name. When I tongued his piss slit he got the picture and found my balls and ran his tongue all over them. We could do this like equals. That was a start. I really got off on his sweet, pink cock. Mine was red and angry and I could feel my resistance was about shot. It felt so good whatever he was doing to me. Then he was pumping my shaft and sucking the tip and I almost convulsed, hunching over as my breath caught in my chest and my head felt spinning dizzy with the pure horny craziness of it. "Oh!" My penis exploded with little rushing starlight going fast and soft-seeming arrows coming out and coming back over and over again. The arrows seemed to have feathers on their sides and made my cock feel like it is being tickled inside. "Oh, God!" I loved it. I couldn't help it. I'm a fuckin' man, after all. My cock likes any attention it can get. And then my fucking cell phone rang. I knew that particular ringtone set to "Yuy". "Fuck!" "Just ignore it," Quatre told me. "It's Yuy." I reached across him and grabbed my pants off the floor, fumbled for the phone. "What?" I barked. "Uh, huh, bad timing no fuck. Uh, huh. Tell you what, Yuy. I'll come pick you up and you'll take us all to the Cavern." I looked at Quatre and shared a resigned shrug. "So, where are you?" 'That'll take us thirty minutes" I told him, although I don't know how I knew that. "I gotta find my clothes. Okay, twenty. Yeah. Bye, then." Quatre sat up, hair mussed adorably and my cum on his chin. I could have fucked him through the mattress. I know I growled. He laughed. "What?" I growled more. "I should call my sister. Borrow her car? My Miata won't hold Heero and Duo and you and me." I tossed him my phone. "Christ, I forgot!" "It's okay. I remembered. We make a pretty good team, don't you think? We understand one another." "Yeah." We were sharing the bathroom, running the shower for a quick cleanup by mutual decision. Quatre might think he understood me, but I completely got him. He likes directing our activities as long as I was going along with it, but relinquished that position to me when I pushed back, so I didn't see that was a problem. I might not have had a clear picture of what my dating habits were before my accident, but my body sure did. I'd have to teach Quatre a few things. "I have lots to learn to be a good lover, I can tell." I kissed him for that admission. "It's something to learn together." I never perfected the five minute shower. Quatre's sister wanted Quatre's Miata in trade for her fifteen-year old clunker. We were late to pick up Heero and Duo. And Zechs, the Prince of Darkness, was there. And Yuy looked as if a storm cloud was raining on his good time. And Duo was flapping his arms for take-off and cursing a blue streak. Well, I guess I wasn't the only one who had my good time interrupted.
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