Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing
A/N: Lots of exposition in this chapter. I hope it's not boring.
PS: I forgot to mention in my last update, Chihaya-sempai has made really cool artwork for two of the chapters for this story. Please check out her work from the links on my profile page! You must see them!
Also I have a beta! WCInsane has agreed to be my general beta! Any mistakes are all mine because in the end, I'm the last one to have possession of the chapter. Something's bound to get messed up.
Now on with the story!
Posted on March 17, 2008
“What do you think he wants?” Duo asked, one arm slung over Wufei’s shoulders as they waited for James to show up. They were standing, leaning in front of the post office at the mall across from their office building where James had told them they’d meet over lunch. Wufei shrugged Duo’s arm off his shoulder.
“I don’t know. I’m still surprised that his Adam is our Adam.” Wufei commented.
Duo slung his arm over Wufei’s shoulders again pulling him close to his side. He used his slight height advantage to tuck him into his armpit. “This is hilarious… I mean, when I had fallen for Heero I would never have guessed it would come with this much baggage.”
Wufei pulled Duo’s arm off his shoulder again and took half a step to the side to peel himself off Duo. “Regrets?” He asked as he scanned the crowd milling in front of them.
“Hell no.” He said and moved back next to his friend who darted away before he could wrap his arm around his shoulder. “No regrets. Just… funny.”
Wufei slapped Duo’s arm away when it came too close. “Not funny. Dangerous.” He backed away from Duo who was advancing on him cautiously. “But not nearly as dangerous as it will be if you don’t stop touching me!” He said the last two words loudly, agitated.
Duo grinned and grabbed Wufei’s collar, yanking him towards himself. “Oh you know you love it!” He said smugly as he wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him into a pseudo headlock.
“Maxwell! Let me go this instant!” He growled and grabbed Duo’s belt, which was the closest thing to him at the moment. Pulling hard he kicked the backs of Duo’s knees causing him to buckle forward and then lose his balance.
Duo let Wufei’s head go as he fell but kicked out at the last moment, tripping his feet and causing him to tumble onto Duo. “Aww Wu… if you only wanted me under you all you had to do was ask!” He said smugly.
Wufei growled and pulled himself off Duo so fast he almost felt himself go light-headed. “Not in a million years Maxwell.” He hissed and Duo got up.
“Don’t worry Wu-bear. Wifey won’t find out.” He said and then slung his arm over Wufei’s shoulders again. This time he just sighed and slouched a little, accepting his fate. “There he is.” Duo said his tone changing to one of seriousness. Wufei looked up to see James making his way over to them and he pulled himself away from Duo, who thankfully didn’t try to hug him again.
“Do you ever go anywhere without your boy toy?” James asked Duo as he stood in front of them.
“So this is why you called us here? To taunt us?” Duo asked raising an eyebrow.
“Uh… no.” James took a deep breath and then straightened himself, almost self consciously. “Can we go somewhere a little more private?” He asked glancing warily at all the people walking around.
“Why?” Wufei asked suspiciously.
“Look,” James said exasperated, “There’s two of you and one of me. If I do something stupid you can whip out your crazy Kung Fu moves on me. Deal?”
Even Duo found himself smiling at that comment while Wufei bristled. “Not every Asian knows martial arts. That’s stereotyping!”
“Do you know martial arts?” James asked in a flat tone.
Wufei bristled even more. “Yes… but that’s not the-”
Duo cut him off before he got started. “Where do you want to go?”
James jerked his head slightly to the right. “I live nearby. It’ll be plenty of privacy.”
“Dude you’re rolling in money aren’t you?” Duo said whistling with appreciation. James lived in a condominium overlooking the office building, literally five minutes walk away from work. It was large with ceiling to floor glass windows. It was tastefully decorated with neutral browns and a dash of red here and there. Simple but nice looking.
Of course, it had none of the warmth of Heero’s home. Heero’s place looked lived in. This? This was too clean.
“Welcome to my humble abode.” He said simply and Wufei followed after him, toeing his shoes off at the door.
Duo walked up to the windows and looked down out at the view. From this height the cars looked tiny and majority of the view consisted of large buildings towering into the sky broken rather haphazardly by small housing communities. From here he could see the park where he and Heero met every so often and you could also make out the roof of Heero’s house. But it was too far to actively spy on them.
Wufei padded over to Duo’s side looking over the view. “Talk.” He said sharply, his eyes trained on the pattern of the cars moving on the roads.
“Maxwell? Remember the umm… the photos that kept getting into the office network?” James sat down on a couch, crossing his legs.
Duo nodded. “Hard to forget. You kept giving me a hard time about them and Butt nearly fired me for it.”
“Yeah… well that was me. I leaked the photos into the network.” James said softly keeping his eyes trained on Wufei. He knew that he could handle Duo if he decided to take a swing at him but Wufei just looked… deadlier.
Duo frowned. “I knew it! It had to be you! Every time something went wrong you were right there – right there to watch the whole thing play out.”
“Yeah well… it’s not that simple.” James said and Wufei turned around to take a seat across from him.
“Why would you try to slander Duo?” He asked.
“Would you believe me if I said it was because I was jealous?” James said looking a little embarrassed. “It started that way anyway. Duo is brilliant at what he does and everyone knows it. And while he was around none of my work got any recognition. I was always either the annoying one or the good looking one. I wanted him fired so that I could take his place. I found out about Butt’s homophobia days before that first poster advertising Duo’s virginity.”
Duo’s eyes widened. That poster was the reason why he had gotten so irritated and ended up walking into Heero that day. So in a sense, he owed his meeting Heero to James. “What happened then?”
“Well it clearly didn’t work. And my resentment grew that Butt seemed to trust you so implicitly. So I tailed you and got a couple of pictures of you and Heero.” It didn’t escape either of their attention that James knew about Heero. But they kept quiet letting James talk. “Then one day while I was tailing you in the park, this guy Adam showed up.”
Duo and Wufei both stiffened and James noticed. “You know him.” He stated, not questioned.
“Yeah, he’s the guy who nearly got me killed.” Duo said flexing his right hand in phantom pain.
There was a flash of guilt on James’ face but he hid it quickly. “So… Adam saw me and asked me what I was doing. I gave him a vague answer which he was apparently satisfied with. Later though, I found out that while I was tailing you… he was tailing Heero.”
Duo leaned against the large windows, crossing his arms over his chest as a wave of worry surged through him. “What does he want from Heero?”
“He doesn’t want anything from him. He wants him. Period.” James said.
“But isn’t he in a relationship with you?” Duo asked without thinking and James suddenly straightened up, his back rigid and muscles tense.
“How the hell do you know that?” He hissed in surprise and Duo swallowed.
“We uh… we heard you talking on your cell a few weeks back.” Duo said sheepishly, turning away and resisting the urge to scratch his head awkwardly.
“You were eavesdropping on me?” He asked incredulously and then his eyes widened, “What do you mean ‘we’?”
“Umm…” Duo glanced instinctively at Wufei who gave him a wide eyed look.
“Him?” James said stunned, then laughed a little crazily. “Oh thank god. I was worried some other idiot out there was running around with that information.”
“No… no… just us ‘idiots’.” Duo said with a small silly smile.
“Speak for yourself Maxwell.” Wufei jumped in with a smirk.
“Oh you know something has to be wrong with you if you’re friends with me.” Duo shot back.
“Friends is a strong word.” Wufei said smugly and James cleared his throat loudly before Duo even had a chance to open his mouth.
“Even though this is highly entertaining, I think I should continue with what happened between Adam and I before we have to leave for work again?” Duo and Wufei both nodded. “So where was I? Oh yes… Adam was tailing Heero because he wants him back. We joined forces. I wanted you fired and Adam wanted you away from Heero.” James flapped a hand carelessly in front of him, “All that jazz about the enemy of your enemy being your friend.”
“That’s when the photos started getting more personal and the threats more real… isn’t it?” Duo asked and James nodded.
“He had… less qualms about using more… harsher methods…” James added sounding uncomfortable. “I didn’t like it and I was frustrated with how the idea of getting you fired was turning into getting you hurt.” He ran a hand through his hair in an agitated manner. “Then you got into the accident and… well, I decided enough was enough. I wanted out.”
“I’ve heard Adam’s not very good with threats.” Duo said and James nodded.
“We’re done now. No more. But Adam doesn’t think so and he still calls me to tell me what the next step of his plans is and it worries me.” James’ eyes narrowed in disgust.
“What’s he planning?” Wufei asked, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers entwined in between them.
“He’s going to stop bothering with subtle. He’s going to start actively pursuing Heero and you’re in the way.” James said, his eyes begging him to hear what he didn’t want to say.
“He wants me dead.” Duo said and the solemn expression he got in answer did nothing to dampen his nervousness.
“Heero must not find out about this.” Duo hissed to Wufei as they headed back home from work. After the lunch had ended they both had ended up not getting much work done and now they were making their way through downtown nervously.
“It’s about him! You must tell him.” Wufei said adamantly and Duo shook his head.
“It’ll worry him and I’m moving in with him soon anyway. I don’t want him to guilt himself into thinking it’s his fault. Worse, he’ll probably try to reason with Adam. I don’t want him anywhere near that sonofabitch.” Duo said seriously, frowning.
“It’s best if you get to him before he gets to you. Did you find his address yet?” Wufei asked him and Duo froze midstep.
“What are you talking about?” Duo asked, confused.
“The disk I made for you! It had a dozen or so Adam Shaws in there and you were supposed to check them out.” Wufei said and then slapped his head in frustration. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”
“I don’t even know which carton I packed it in.” Duo pouted. “Or even if I packed it. Or if I threw it away.”
“I am not hacking into the police database again.” Wufei muttered sternly before turning around to head towards the subway. “And I suggest you only call me if Adam is about to stab you to death.”
"Wu” Duo whined but Wufei just waved flippantly and jogged lightly to cross the road while the light was still red. He waited on his side of the road as the light turned green and the rush of cars started moving past him.
Duo shuffled from foot to foot as he waited for the train to show. He had another five minutes to go before it arrived and he was impatient. He wanted to go home and search for the missing disk. It was tugging on his mind strings. He remembered sitting on his bed, the disk on the table in front of him before he decided to go to see Heero at the park. After that the accident had caused the disk to slip from his mind.
Now he was wondering if he had thrown away the unmarked disk or packed it away thoughtlessly. Either way, that was the last of the disk he remembered seeing and this did not bode well.
As Duo was lost in thought, a touch ghosted across his back. Turning quickly Duo pulled away from the touch that startled him, only to find a tall, dark haired man with green eyes standing right behind him. He felt the urge to get away creep up and Duo quickly took several steps away from both the man and the edge of the station platform.
“Have a nice lunch with Jamie?” The man asked shoving his hands into his pockets and rocking a little on his feet.
Duo’s eyes widened. How did this man know he had been talking to James? “What are you talking about?”
“Oh don’t play dumb.” He said annoyed. “I saw you leave with him.”
“So what now? Are you tailing James along with me and Heero? Exactly how big is your stalker ego?” Duo sneered at him.
“Pretty big. And not everything is about you. If you leave Heero alone I’ll leave you alone. You scratch my back and I scratch yours.” He said unworried. Duo was not the violent type and should it come to a fight he had an assured victory. Without even regarding Duo as a threat he looked down picking on some loose threads on his dark blue jacket.
“First of all, eww. Keep your hands to yourself. Second, I’m not going anywhere. Now go away.” Duo made shooing motions with his hands.
Adam frowned in confusion at him. “I’m giving you an out. If you don’t back off I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”
Duo raised an eyebrow incredulously. “What? So if you were to throw me in front of the coming train it won’t be your fault?”
“I warned you. It’s your fault if you don’t take it seriously.” Adam’s voice deepened, an undercurrent of threat leaking into his tone.
“Uh huh… right. Go away.” Duo repeated, dismissing him and turned slightly towards the train tracks but not fully. He didn’t trust Adam with his back turned.
Adam came up to stand beside him. “You know… you’re not bad looking yourself.” He commented with an obscene leer, staring at Duo’s face and raking his eyes slowly over his body. “It’s a waste you’re wasted on a guy who can’t even see.”
In a split moment Duo whipped around and grabbed Adam’s throat pushing him back until his back met a bricked column. “And who’s fault is that?” He hissed, his face close to Adam’s, suddenly angry.
“Heero’s… mostly.” Adam shrugged, not intimidated by the fingers wrapped around his neck, squeezing. “His fault for running out onto the road drunk.”
“I know the truth asshole.” Duo growled at him.
“Uh huh… which version? The one where I rape him? Or the one where my friends rape him? Or maybe the one where I pushed him in front of that truck. Believe me Maxwell, I’ve heard all of them.” Adam calmly stated obviously dismissing them all.
“You. Are. A. Bastard.” Duo ground out through gritted teeth.
“Po-tay-toe, Po-tah-to. Adam, Bastard.” He said shrugging. “Not the most creative insult. I’ve heard worse.”
“I’m sure you have.” Duo snarled as he squeezed Adam's neck tighter.
Suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the pressure on his throat Adam grabbed Duo’s braid and pulled hard, causing Duo’s grip on his throat to slacken and his head to snap back with the harshness of the pull. He didn’t miss the sharp intake of breath indicating that the pull was working in hurting Duo.
“You really are pretty…” He pulled Duo’s face close to his as he tightened his grip on his hair. “If you weren’t such a colossal pain in my ass I’d actually try to get into your pants.” He said as he let Duo’s hair go.
Duo fell to his knees grasping his head gently. The bastard hadn’t been careful when he had grabbed him and he could feel the roots of his hair hurting.
When he looked up again he saw that Adam had disappeared and that there was a slight crowd gathered there. “I’m okay, no need to help.” He said sarcastically to the nearest guy who gave him a surprised look and then darted away. Following his comment the rest of the crowd dissipated too.
“Ah…” He hissed softly, gently touching his aching scalp. “Fuck…” He looked up to see the train doors closing and the bell chiming merrily as the train started leaving the station. Perfect, now he’d have to wait another fifteen minutes for the next train.
Duo buried his face into Heero’s chest, breathing in his scent deeply. He was lying curled up into Heero, the sky dark outside and the only source of light in the bedroom was the neon green lighted numbers of Heero’s alarm clock. He had gone home, only to grab some clothes and necessities before heading back to Heero’s place.
He felt Heero run his fingers through his unbound hair, gently massaging his scalp and he sighed happily. He hadn’t told him, anyone, of his encounter with Adam at the subway station choosing instead to just calmly, quietly lie with Heero on his bed.
He felt Heero nudging his head back and he looked up to see what he wanted. Heero dipped his head instead and used his fingers to locate Duo’s lips before replacing them with his own. Heero rarely ever initiated kisses but when he did Duo was the happiest man alive, aching hair be damned.
Duo took a deep breath and started massaging Heero’s lips with his own, keeping it clean and chaste, soft smacking sounds lifting the silence in the bedroom. Slowly Heero crawled on top of Duo at the same time as he licked Duo’s lips.
Heero taking charge was new but Duo was not complaining. He opened his mouth to Heero, lips pliant and let him do as he wished. Heero kissed him deeply, his fingers gliding along his side all the way to his neck to reach into his hair and continue to massage the slight ache away.
Duo wrapped his hands around Heero, holding him close to him, their bodies touching all the way to their knees. He sucked on Heero’s tongue as he parted his knees, allowing Heero to rest comfortably between his legs.
With a soft smacking sound Heero pulled his lips away from Duo’s, his fingers receding from his hair. “Feel better?” He whispered, settling his head on Duo’s shoulder and his breath ghosting over his neck.
“How’d you know…?” Duo whispered back, his voice hoarse and raspy with want.
“Your breath… it changes when you hurt.” He answered softly.
His words caused something in Duo’s heart to swell so much that he felt he could burst. “Oh God I love you so much it hurts sometimes.” Duo said to him and buried his face in Heero’s hair.
“What’s wrong?” Heero asked, puzzled, but all Duo did was shake his head and keep holding him tightly against his chest.
Duo was worried. Really worried. He wondered if he wouldn't be around when Adam showed up. He worried that he wouldn't be there when Heero needed him. He worried… in a very deep, small part of his subconscious… if Heero would leave him for Adam.
Giving up for now, Duo let himself sink into the soft mattress that smelled like Heero. He grasped Heero’s hand and placed it back on his head. “Rub my head some more?” He asked and Heero chuckled before resuming the soothing motion of his fingers.
Tomorrow… tomorrow, he’ll go find that damned disk and do something about that fucking Shaw.
Right now? He’d lie here and pretend that Heero and him were the only two people in the world.
A/N: Hope you liked! Oh and just letting anyone who's interested know: I'm putting White Shadows and The Gift on hiatus. I hate the way I wrote those stories and even though I intend to continue I'm going to revamp them big time.
Until next time,
Persephone