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"Bona Fide"Written By: ExecutiveShrimp Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, it belongs
to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. Written for pleasure not
profit. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Romance, drama, family Pairings: 1x2x1 Summary: Heero is being deported. Duo suggests (or proposes, if you will) marriage, to get Heero a Green Card. All they have to do is convince Immigration that their love is 'bona fide'. The problem is… they hate each other. Bona Fide is part of the GWCU: The Gundam Wing Cinematic Universe A GWCU fanfiction based on The Proposal (2009) This series of stories places our two (or more) favorite Gundam Wing characters in movie "universes". Not following the original story of the movies, but borrowing their worlds, events and/or premises. For a comprehensive introduction to the concept of the GWCU - as well as an up-to-date list of movie adaptations that are completed, in progress or planned - view my profile page.
"Bona Fide" PART THREE Nick and Enmar let their coffees go cold as they trailed Duo through the park. "You're flying out to your parents to tell them you're marrying this asshole?" "Well, we have to make it look real for Immigration. They won't just be interviewing us, but calling our families – my family – as well. It won't bode well if my mom answers the call and says: 'Heero Yuy? The devil-wears-prada, you mean?'. I have no choice." "You do have a choice," Enmar said. "If you go meet with that USCIS guy before things get too far, you can still get out of this." "I've been this guy's slave for over two years, En. It's time I got something out of it. We'll only have to be married for a couple of years, by the end of which I will have gotten my chance to have my work displayed in the best galleries in New York. It's my shot at getting my art out there and finding out if it's been worth pouring my life into it. If I don't do this, I'll spend ten more years fetching coffees or waiting tables, wasting time chasing a dream that I might not have the stamina nor even the talent to fulfill." "Duo, you're a great artist," Nick said in a hushed tone, meaning to calm him down. "You would have gotten your work on the wall some other way, someday." "And have you thought about what else there is to life?" The other chimed in. "You're going to have to lie to your family for years. You can't date, because you'll be married. And you are going to be living with a man you despise." Right. That was something he hadn't actually given any thought: their living arrangements after the wedding. It would certainly be suspicious to the USCIS if Duo stayed in his hole-in-the-wall studio in Brooklyn, rather than moving into Heero's loft on the Upper West Side with a view of the Hudson. There were a lot of things the two of them hadn't figured out yet, because Heero – completely in line with his personality – refused to give Duo the time of day to talk with him. "Stop it. Stop it!" He looked at them with pleading eyes. "I'm doing this. Maybe it's the wrong choice, but it's the choice I'm making. I'd like it if my friends would try to support me." The two shared a look and then their features softened in resignation. "Okay, Duo. We'll stop questioning this." "But you don't get to play My-Boss-is-the-Most-Horrible-Person-in-the-World anymore." Duo smiled. "Okay. Deal." The three of them parted ways as they all had work to get to. Duo went into the gallery, brought Heero his coffee as usual and was ignored as usual, and then sat at his desk to get some work done. They would be gone for a couple of days, so he had to make sure everything was in order. Just because his job had been as much of a sham as this marriage would be, didn't mean he'd be slacking off. This was the home-stretch and he could last until the end. Heero spent most of the day on the phone with an artist from Madrid, who he was trying to convince to have his art on display in the gallery. The one-sided conversation in Spanish drifted out the door and Duo listened in with half an ear. The only time there was ever any passion to be detected in Heero's tone of voice, was when the man talked about art. Even when Duo didn't understand a word of what was being said, he could tell the curator really liked this artist's work. A greedy part of him wished Heero would like his work too. He hated the man, but it would be a meaningful validation of his talent. But Heero didn't really appreciated digital art and the gallery had always been biased against it because of the curator's personal preferences. Heero liked texture, which was why much of the collection was thickly layered acrylic paintings and sculptures with an unfinished quality to them. The neon light installation was one of few exceptions. Duo fell in love with the digital medium because it allowed an artist every liberty to take risk. A blank canvas was always intimidating to him, because while a mistake could be covered up, it would, in essence, be permanent, just unseen. He didn't like knowing that his art would have a layer of mistakes underneath. On his computer he could work freely. It allowed him to be bold and fearless. He recognized that bravery and freedom in other digital works as well. It was midday when Gisele came to find him for lunch. He saw her coming his way from across the hall and frowned at the odd look in her eyes. She plastered herself against the low partition that offered his workspace some measure of privacy and she blurted: "I just heard through the grapevine that you and the Wicked Witch of the West are flying to Montana tonight." He tensed up. The idea of his coworkers thinking he was in a relationship with the boss irked him, but he knew it was something he had to face sooner or later. He tried to keep his inflection neutral. "Yeah, we're going to see my parents." "Why?" Obviously she had just figured they would be recruiting some new amazing artist for the gallery – although she should have known the curator never brought his assistant along for those trips. "We're-" He swallowed. "We're going to tell them we're getting married." Gisele laughed heartedly and a Spanish sentence was cut off midway. Heero purposefully walked around his desk and closed the glass door while glaring at the two of them. He continued with: "Lo siento…" "Come one, seriously." "I am being serious." She was frozen for a moment, trying to work out if she was missing a joke in his flat tone of voice. "You're not kidding," she concluded. "No." "But… You hate him. You two go together about as well as boiled eggs and Greek yoghurt." That was certainly more descriptive than he needed, leaving a weird taste in his mouth. "He's… quite… nice, once you get to know him." He could barely get the lie out. "Yeah? And when did that happen? Because just two weeks ago you called him Satan." He paused and quietly ransacked his brain for an explanation she – and everyone else - would accept. "I was keeping up pretenses because… the timing is a little unfortunate. You see, we've been dating for a couple of months and I wanted to tell you, but then he said he was going to exhibit my work at the gallery and I didn't want anyone to think I was just sleeping with the boss to get my art on the wall." She chuckled. "We're going to think that anyway." "Well, it's not true. But, anyway, we're getting married now, so there's no point in trying to keep it quiet any longer." "Who proposed?" "I did." "Before or after he told you he was giving you a show?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Bye, Gisele." "Aren't we going to get lunch?" "I'm not hungry anymore." He looked down at Heero's schedule for the week. He still had to plan a couple of the appointments that were canceled in favor of their engagement-announcement in Montana. She kept standing there for a little longer, perhaps trying to decided what she wanted to say, if anything at all; if she wanted to apologize and still be his friend, or if she still didn't believe he wasn't just sleeping with the boss for fame. In the end, she said nothing and walked away. Duo found it hard to focus on his work after that. His friends were being weird. His coworkers were being weird. And soon his family would be weird to him too. He had to keep reminding himself that it would be worth it in the end. Near the end of the workday he shut off his computer and grabbed the small suitcase that had been under his desk all day. He approached the glass door with caution. He peered at Heero, squinting at the Mac screen. He'd been quiet for over an hour. Duo softly knocked on the door with just his index finger and then let himself in. "We have to leave for the airport." Heero's gaze shifted to the corner of the screen to confirm the time. "You should have come to get me half an hour ago. I don't like cutting it this close." Duo ignored the snide tone to the best of his abilities and watched the curator neatly fold up and stack some print-outs on his desk and boot down his computer and slip his thin laptop into his briefcase. The car service would be pulling up downstairs any minute, with Heero's luggage in the trunk. The two of them went down to the entry where a driver in a black suit with a black umbrella met them. The driver guided Heero to the car, keeping him dry in the pouring rain. Duo got soaked in just the few yards from the front steps to the car, pausing to put his suitcase in the trunk himself, while the driver was dutifully holding the door open for the other man as he got in, and even shutting it for him too. Wet and already cold, Duo rolled into the backseat on the right side, right as the driver was getting behind the wheel. "We should probably hash some things out during the flight," Duo said as they drove to the airport. "I found a list of interview questions online." He produced his phone from his pocket to look up the questionnaire. "There's a lot of stuff we need to figure out and my parents need to know some of these things too, so they'll have the same answers as we do when Chang calls them." "Fine. We'll talk on the plane," Heero said and then asked the driver to turn the music up. Delicate piano notes of classical music filled the vehicle. Duo bit his tongue and wisely kept quiet. The experience at the airport was the most relaxed and fluid he had ever had. Someone came to carry their luggage for them and walked them to the gate. They were allowed to board before anyone else. The staff knew Heero's name and served him a glass of 'his favorite scotch' as soon as they sat down in the preposterously large seats. The flight attendant put their carry-on luggage in the overhead compartments for them. Heero had two suitcases as well as his leather briefcase with him, but no one ever gave him any grief about that. "Thank you for flying with us again, Sir," said the flight attendant before leaving them alone and guiding the next passengers to their seats. "Maybe if you weren't such a frequent flyer, we wouldn't be in this predicament at all," Duo remarked bitterly. "If I hadn't screwed up my Visa reapplication, you would be getting my coffees every day of the week until you'd finally have the balls to quit. Rather than getting your work featured in the gallery. So you can stop pretending that this is all just one huge inconvenience for you." Touché. Duo was happy he had the window seat, so he didn't feel like arguing. He didn't fly much and the view out the little window always thrilled him. He especially liked that they would be taking off around sunset, and landing in Billings, Montana at night would be a nice display of lights too. Many of his works were actually inspired by city lights and urban skylines. He wondered if Heero realized that, when he barely looked at his art when he showed it to him during his 'interview'. The plane took off only a few minutes behind schedule and they were served a surprisingly qualitative dinner – if a small portion - as soon as they were at cruising altitude. Duo ordered champagne to go with it. After dessert, he pulled out his phone again. He looked sideways at Heero and prodded the man when he saw he had his eyes closed. If looks could kill, the flight attendant would frantically be asking if there was a doctor on board, right about now. "The questions. Remember?" "I do." "Hehe, 'I do'." He chuckled but Heero was unamused. "Right. We have our work cut out for us. Of course there was no complete, leaked interview, but I gathered as much as I could from blogs and stuff, and some of these questions we really need to study for." "Lucky for us that we have a seven hour flight with lay-over ahead of us," Heero bit sarcastically. "We can't make any mistakes, Heero. The deck is already stacked against us with you being older than me, not to mention my boss. Thankfully an advantage to our working relationship is that I actually do know a couple of things about you from managing your calendar. I also have two years' worth of text messages from you saying shit like 'I need you', 'come over now' and 'don't even think of going home tonight'." He said mockingly. "What's that voice?" Duo raised his eyebrows innocently. "What? Huh?" "That voice you just did. That accent. Was that supposed to be me?" He just grinned. "And what things do you presume to know about me?" He sounded perturbed. "We'll get to that." Duo scrolled through the list of questions on his phone. "I guess we'll start at the beginning. We can just tell the true story of how we met. But then when do we say the relationship became romantic?" "A year ago?" He shook his head. "Uhm, can't. I… uh… I was seeing someone. If they dig that up…" "When did that end?" "December." Heero did some math in his head. "Okay, let's say you needed a couple of months to grieve and we started dating six months ago." "Should we make notes, you think?" "It'll stick." Heero was as unconcerned as he always seemed to be. "Horror stories usually do…" he muttered. "Okay. So… how did it happen?" It was uncomfortable making eye-contact. "Is that a question on the list?" Heero countered, already irked with this homework. "One of the questions is 'who initiated the relationship?' Another is: 'Where did you go for your first date?'" "I initiated it. And I took you to Nine," he decided. "Hold on, why do you get to be one who initiated it? You can't just call dibs like that." "I'm the older one between us and I'm the one who has been sending all these terribly demanding texts all this time," he snipped. Duo let out a snort. "As if Chang is ever going to believe you are the top in the relationship." Heero straightened in the chair, causing the leather to wring. "Excuse me?" "I mean… come on…" He stared at his phone screen very intently so he wouldn't accidently look Heero in the eyes. He was certain it would turn him to stone. "Says the guy with the three foot braid." "Three feet is also approximately how much taller I am than you," he exaggerated for comedic effect. In reality, the difference was only a few inches. "Fine, if it better accommodates your fragile masculinity, you can say you were the one who initiated it." "Cool." He flashed a smirk at having gotten his way. "So where did you take me for our date? You can't even afford an appetizer at Nine." "No, not on the salary you pay me…" They both crossed their arms in front of their chest in frustration and remained silent for a moment. Duo knew they had to keep going. Yes, it was a long flight, but they had an entire romantic history to figure out. And those awkward silences weren't exactly making time fly by anyway. "I took you to the Sakura Matsuri Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and then made dinner for you at my place." "I'm pretty sure that's racist." "I'm pretty sure it's romantic and a respectful recognition of your heritage," he said smartly. "I'm pretty sure the white man doesn't get to make that call. Can you even cook?" "I'm an excellent cook." "What do you propose you made me? Chang will ask." Duo made a face. He deadpanned: "Chicken. And I secretly undercooked yours." "Next question." Duo was pleased with himself until his glanced down at his list. He hesitated before reading aloud: "When did we have your first kiss?" "I'm guessing in April under a bunch of cherry blossom," his boss groused. "I don't kiss during the first date," Duo stated matter-of-factly. "Only a kiss goodnight at the end." The other man sighed and leaned his head back. "Then that's what happened." "Great. I think it's going pretty well." He scanned more questions. "We've already established that I proposed. Let's just say I did it kind of impromptu. But it was romantic in a spontaneous kind of way. Working late at the gallery, or something. Sharing take-out… Huh. This is making me hungry." "You know what, Duo? Why don't you just type all of this shit up and give me a copy to learn by heart? You take the lead at your parents' place and I'll just play along. The particulars really don't matter to me." Duo thought for a second and then readily agreed. "I can take care of the relationship bit. But there is still the part of the interview where they test how well we know each other. I can make up a story about our relationship, but with everything else we have to be as truthful as possible. Because that's easier to remember than a bunch of lies. And we already have plenty of lies we need to memorize." Heero just stared. "So, tell me something true," he prompted and then he waited. "Let me look at the questions." Duo thought of arguing, since the interview would probably go beyond the scope of the couple of questions he could find online, but it would be a good place to start and he figured this was how they could get the ball rolling. So he handed over his phone. Heero took a minute to study the list. His mouth became tighter and tighter as he scrolled down. "You already know how I drink my coffee. You know I don't have any family. And you've been to my loft often enough to be able to tell where it is and what it looks like…" he said as those questions in particular caught his eyes. "Yeah… tell me something I don't know." He sighed and without looking up from the phone, he started: "My birthday is January second. I was born in Kyoto, went to university in Tokyo and studied at Cambridge for a year." Actually, he also already knew that, but he didn't interrupt. "I have your number saved on my phone under 'Darren', because as your employer I know that is your actual first name. My best friend's name is Samuel. I'm not religious. My favorite cuisine is Greek. I don't have a favorite TV show, because I don't watch television. My previous romantic relationship was with a man named Odin, who was almost twenty years older than me. I…" He paused at the next question but managed to continue with the same flat, unfazed tone: "I lost my virginity when I was nineteen. To a girl." Duo caught himself smirking. "And my favorite guilty pleasure song is 'Play that funky music', by Wild Cherry." He handed the phone back to his assistant, not reacting to Duo's incredulous stare. "As in: play that funky music, white boy?" "Yes." Heero had never given Duo a reason to smile, but he was smiling from ear to ear. "That's… unexpected… I have to admit that I never thought of you as someone capable of surprising me." "What about you? Are you going to surprise me?" "Billy Joel's 'Tell her about it'," the American readily admitted, perhaps defeating the purpose of a guilty pleasure. He went through the questions in reverse order, scrolling up when Heero had been scrolling down. He noticed Heero had skipped some questions and he only answered the ones the other had as well. "I lost my virginity at sixteen. It was only a blowjob, but I think that counts. It was with a boy. My previous romantic relationship was with a man named Aaron. We don't talk anymore. I don't have much time to watch TV, but I enjoy watching old sitcoms on Netflix. I'm all about Italian food. I was raised Catholic but while I do believe there is something, I also believe there is no way for us to ever know what it is until… we get there." He chuckled. "My best friends are named Nick and Enmar. And… uh… I have you saved in my phone under 'Miserable Fucktwit', because as your employee… I know you are." He wished he could read something on Heero's face, but the man was impassive as ever. All the Japanese man said, in response to his last answer was: "You should probably change that before the interview." He let out a laugh at the dry remark. "Yeah, I probably should. How do you like 'Pumpkin'?" "I think I like being deported better." "Fine, fine. I'll think of something." They continued sharing details of their lives and fleshing out their fictional romance for another two hours, as long as Duo could keep Heero motivated. Every minute of it was like pulling teeth, but each little fact he learned about the other man humanized him a small way and that might make this charade easier to sell. Then the Japanese man announced that they should try to get some rest and he left no room for argument. They each listened to their own music for a while and eventually Heero asked a flight attendant for a pillow and blanket and he shut off his overhead reading light. Duo decided he should try to get some sleep as well. Most of the plane was dark. It was peaceful in business class. Behind the curtain Duo could hear some faint mumbling, coughing and sniffling. The chair reclined back until it was practically flat. It was comfortable, but he didn't expect to get any sleep. Yet by the time Duo woke up, the lights of his home state were visible through the window and the flight attendant announced that they would be landing at Billings Logan international airport in ten minutes. Duo had never been so scared during a landing, even though the entire process was perfectly smooth and the plane barely bounced as it touched down.
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