Sitting at her dressing table
brushing her hair, Relena watched Heero in the mirror.
I've got to get
him to talk about this, she thought, worried. He seemed to be opening up
again since we found Duo, but the last few days he's been completely shutting
himself off... He didn't even take an interest in the meeting today! He's
normally so focussed on security, he would have been asking all sorts of
questions and demanding proof, but he didn't even pretend to pay attention after
Duo wouldn't speak to him.
Heero sat heavily on the end of the bed
and slowly pulled his shoes off, tossing them into the corner; then he just sat
there, hands dangling limply between his knees, staring at the
floor.
"Relena?" he said quietly, voice hoarse.
"Yes?" she
replied, quickly, putting the brush down and turning around.
"Do you...
I, I haven't been..." He swallowed, still not looking at her. "Do you want to
end our engagement?"
WHAT?!"Heero... why would I want to do
that?"
"I didn't realise... until all this happened, I didn't know
I still loved Duo," he said shakily. "That's not fair to you. I, I do love you,
but if I can't devote myself just to you -- "
"But I don't want
that!" she exclaimed, getting up and walking over to him. He looked up,
startled, as she sat next to him and gently took his hand in
hers.
"But..."
"Do you remember what I acted like, the first
couple of months after I met you?" Relena said softly, smiling at him. "I
followed you everywhere. I stalked you. Did you like it?"
"...No,"
he admitted. "Duo was right when he said you were kind of scary."
"I was
devoting myself completely to you," she said dryly. "For a while, nothing else
really managed to penetrate my shell... at first, because I had a massive crush
on you and thought it was Love At First Sight. Later -- after Father was killed
-- I suppose I was subconsciously hoping you would get the vengeance for me that
I couldn't admit that I wanted. I was so tangled up in the idea of loving
you, being your 'only one', that I couldn't see you properly. It wasn't until I
backed away and started to pay attention to the rest of my life that I actually
started to know you, and really fell in love -- and, I suppose, stopped
being so... scary."
"As for still loving Duo," she continued, going on
before Heero could answer, "I should hope you still do! After everything you
went through together, and everything you were to each other, only an
incredibly shallow person could cut all those ties and just stop caring. You are
not a shallow person, Heero. If you were, I wouldn't have said yes to the
engagement in the first place."
"You... you're sure it's
okay?"
"Yes," she said simply. "You love me, too, right?"
"Of
course!"
"You're in love with me?"
"Yes," he said, puzzled
at the question, but certain of his answer.
"Are you in love with
Duo?"
"I... I don't know," he said, uncomfortably. "How do I
tell?"
You didn't have any trouble working out you were in love with
me, love, she thought. That tells me everything I need to know...
now, I just have to help you get it clear for yourself. "Well," she said
slowly, "what do you want?"
"I want to protect him," he said
sadly. "I want to make everything better. I want him happy. It hurts, seeing him
like this..."
"Do you want to be lovers again?" Relena asked
bluntly.
He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, blushing at the
thought. "I... no. No, I don't. It... it doesn't seem... I still think he's
attractive, and I -- um -- I haven't forgotten what it was like," he said,
glancing at her a little nervously, "but... no."
"What do you want
from Duo, then?"
"I want to be friends again," he said without
thinking. "The way we were towards the end of the war..."
"So you love
Duo as a friend," she said quietly. "A friend and a brother. Why would I feel
threatened by that? As for fixing things and being friends again... you just
need to be patient. Duo's hurt and angry and in no shape to face things right
now. He still loves you deep down, or he wouldn't be as upset as he is. You
know him, Heero. When he's feeling better and more secure, he'll think
everything through. You just have to wait, and be there for him when he's ready
to talk. He'll come back, to all of us, eventually. We just have to have a
little faith."
Heero stared at her for a moment, wide-eyed, as he
processed everything they'd said; then a shaky smile appeared on his face as a
tear rolled down his cheek.
"Thanks," he said, wiping at his face as he
reached out to hug her.
"You're welcome," she said impishly, holding him
close so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes before she got them under
control. "My motives were at least partially selfish, though. I didn't want to
lose you. Don't forget that!"
"I won't," he said, voice muffled in her
shoulder.
"Hmmm... I don't know. The idea might need reinforcement. I
know! Shall we go to bed now, so I can ravish you?"
"Relena, you spent
far too much time talking to Duo towards the end of the
war!"
"Somebody had to give me advice on how to deal with a
certain overly-quiet, introverted, mission obsessed, blue-eyed soldier. Who
better than him?"
A secretive smile curved her lips as she pulled Heero
down to the bed. Thank you, Duo.
* * * * *
The Manguanacs
who drove them home insisted on cooking dinner, so Duo and Wufei had something
to eat besides microwaved TV dinners again. They also insisted on washing the
dishes, and were beginning to hint about the rest of the housework when Wufei
finally got them to leave.
"I develop more sympathy for Quatre every time
I have to deal with his 'henchmen'," Wufei said dryly, returning to the lounge
after locking the front door behind them. Duo didn't answer out loud, but he
looked puzzled, so Wufei continued. "When they want to do something for someone,
they're an unstoppable force!" he explained. "The first time Quatre mentioned
being nagged by them, I thought he was a pushover. That was before they
decided that the rest of us needed looking after as well. Now that I know them
better, I am amazed by Quatre's patience and forbearance. If they'd been
concentrating on Trowa, he would have disappeared. Yui probably would have shot
them all, or self-destructed to get away. I don't know what I would have
done, but it wouldn't have been pleasant! You... hm! Would you have tried to
out-nag them, or played so many practical jokes on them that they had to
run away?"
An involuntary giggle escaped Duo. "I tried the practical
jokes, but they didn't run," he said quietly, smiling. "I painted Rashid's
mobile suit blue with pink polka-dots. He didn't think it was funny." Wufei
snorted. "I'm not surprised! I didn't think it was funny when you painted
Nataku... though I can see the amusing side now, I admit," he said wryly. "When
did you paint Rashid's suit? I never heard about it."
"When I was staying
with Quatre after Hee -- the first time."
After Heero
self-destructed, Wufei filled in mentally. Duo nearly said it...
and it doesn't look like he's done talking. That's good. "I'm sure
that wasn't the only thing you did," he said, settling onto the sofa next to the
braided teen.
"Of course not," Duo sniffed, smile slowly returning
as he automatically snuggled up to Wufei's shoulder. "I water-bombed them a lot.
I got to Rashid's hair oil -- did you know he uses hair oil?"
"No," Wufei
mused, wrapping his arm around Duo and pulling him closer, "but it makes sense.
His hair couldn't possibly stay like that without some
help."
"Definitely. Anyway, I put some sickly-sweet floral perfume in it;
the other Manguanacs were still sniffing suspiciously at him a week later. And I
ran a panty-raid on them."
"You did what?"
"Well, it was a
boxer raid, if you want to get technical." Duo snickered softly. "They must get
their underwear in bulk. Every single one of them had baggy white boxers, with
their names printed in indelible ink on the waistbands. I tie-dyed them...
bright colours... then hung them in a tree. It was such a beautiful sight
the next morning," he mused. "The entire Manguanac corp, in their robes and
pyjamas, standing around the tree admiring my work. Until Rashid bellowed my
name, of course, at which point I ran for it. Did you know Quatre's closet is a
great place to hide? Very roomy. And there's no dust under his bed, either." Duo
looked up innocently at Wufei, and the Chinese pilot had to laugh.
"Yes,"
he said, still chuckling, "I can see that it would be an advantage if the person
whose bed you're hiding under has good servants..."
"It meant I didn't
sneeze while they were looking for me. They got me back though. They put a
diaper and baby bonnet on 'Scythe a few days later. Never underestimate the
deviousness of Rashid..." Abruptly, Duo burrowed his head into Wufei's shoulder
and took a deep, shuddering breath, clinging to the other teen's shirt. "Thanks,
'Fei," he said shakily, voice muffled. "I needed that."
"Feel better
now?" Wufei said softly, gently stroking his back. Duo nodded without lifting
his head. "Yeah," he sighed. "A bit. I... I guess I just needed to think about
something else for a while." Something other than the meeting and Heero,
Wufei thought. "Are you tired?"
"No... not yet." A yawn escaped Duo, and
he blinked. "Oops. Er... not much. I don't want to go to bed yet,
though... can we just stay like this for a while?"
"As long as you want,"
Wufei assured him, hugging him tight and dropping a kiss on top of his
head.
* * * * *
Over the next couple of days, Wufei was delighted
to note that Duo was coming a little further out of his shell. He talked more,
had fewer nightmares and made a few jokes... He even talked about things that
had happened during the war, though he still shied away from any mention of
Heero's name. Quatre's timing seemed to have improved, too; at least, he hadn't
phoned at inopportune moments. That didn't hurt.
Although Duo still
didn't want to 'talk' to Quatre and Trowa directly, he e-mailed them to thank
them for the clothes and other things they'd bought. Quatre sent back a careful,
cheerful reply saying that he'd always wanted to go to some of the shops,
himself, and was actually glad to have had an excuse. The e-mail he sent
privately to Wufei was much longer and less coherent, babbling hopefully about
this sign that Duo was slowly relenting towards him. On Saturday, Wufei saw
Sally for another checkup.
"I'm amazed," she said dryly, looking at the
new x-rays of his shoulder. "You've actually been resting it; it's healing
nicely."
"If I didn't heal well, I wouldn't have done well during the
war, would I?" he grunted, struggling back into his shirt and buttoning it up
around the sling, one-handed. "Why are you so surprised?"
"Oh, I remember
how fast you heal," she assured him, making a note on his medical file. "I
also remember numerous occasions where you got injured and then made it
worse by overstressing half-healed wounds."
"Always for a good reason,"
he pointed out. "The war's over. I don't need to do that any
more."
"And Duo looked at you,
right?"
"...Yes."
"Glad to hear it," she muttered. "I knew I could
count on him.... You're fit for light duty, starting tomorrow. Short shifts, of
course. Will that be a problem?"
"No," he said reluctantly. "Duo already
said it was okay with him."
"But you don't want to?" she asked, eyes
narrowing slightly. Is he worried about leaving Duo again? Maybe I should
have had him come in too --
"Of course I don't want to come
back to work," he snorted. "It means being around you more."
Sally
rolled her eyes. "Get out of here before I throw something at you and have to
patch you up again -- no, wait. Are you and Duo going to Quatre's New Year's Eve
party tomorrow night?"
"I haven't asked Duo yet," he replied, pausing at
the door, "but I doubt it. He's doing well, but he's not really up to parties
yet."
"Good," she said emphatically. "That's what I was going to
say. Now shoo. Stop by Une's office on you way out."
"Did she say
why?"
"Tell her I said 'I think you forgot again'," Sally
smirked.
----------
"Yes?" Une asked
distractedly, looking up from her paperwork as Wufei leaned in her
door.
"Apparently you do," Wufei said dryly.
"...I beg your
pardon?"
"Sally says 'I think you forgot again'. Forgot
what?"
"Oh!" Une grimaced in annoyance and yanked a desk drawer
open, digging through the folders inside. "Of course... sit down, Chang,
this won't take long."
"What won't take long?" Wufei asked,
pointedly checking his watch. "Duo's waiting for me to come
home."
"Here," she said, flicking a thin folder open and pushing it
across the desk. "We've already begun proceedings against Anders through the
internal disciplinary channels; I just need you to read these forms and sign
them so we can press civil charges for assault and slander as well. Ah... you
can manage a signature at the moment, can't you?" she added, uncertainly eyeing
the bulge in his shirt where his right arm was strapped to his
chest.
Wufei looked at the forms for a moment, expressionless, then
closed the folder and pushed it away. "No."
Une frowned. "How long will
your arm be tied up like that? If it's longer than a few days, I suppose we'll
have to get a Justice of the Peace to witness your 'mark' -- "
"I can
manage a signature," he interrupted. "I meant , no, I won't press civil
charges."
"...You what?"
"You heard me."
"Chang," she said
in a pained voice, rubbing at her forehead, "could you please explain to me
why you won't press charges against a man who tried to cripple you? He
would probably have cheerfully killed you if he thought he could get away
with it!"
"The internal charges are enough," the Chinese teen said
flatly. "This is a quasi-military organisation and I know there's a provision in
the charter for prison terms as punishment for serious offenses. If you're
charging him with assault on a superior officer, that's plenty; he'll get just
as long a sentence as he would through the civil courts -- "
"Yes, but --
"
" -- and Duo will never have to come into it."
"Oh," Une sat
back, looking at him. "I see... but, Chang, Duo wouldn't have to come into a
civil case either."
"Wouldn't he?" Wufei laughed humourlessly. "In a
trial for assault, only a moronic defense lawyer wouldn't try to make the jury
believe Anders had a good reason to attack me. Duo's his excuse. We know
it's bullshit, and we could prove it, but in the process they'd drag everything
out in court... and it would go straight into the tabloids. Eight months
missing, the state he was in when we found him, speculations on how and why he
got that way, even the fact that we were Gundam pilots! All it would take would
be one ex-OZ soldier seeing our pictures in the papers, and realising what a
reporter would pay for the information. Not to mention that you want me to bring
charges of slander. I couldn't exactly do that without saying what he was saying
about me! It's the sort of stuff that makes wonderful 'human interest'
mush, and I will not have Duo exposed to those vultures!
She
sighed. "Very well. I suppose you're right that internal charges should be
enough.; we are charging him with assault on a superior officer,
incitement to assault, conspiracy, dereliction of duty and insubordination,
after all."
"You just had to squeeze that last little bit in, didn't
you?" he asked, struggling up out of the chair.
"The shoe fits," Une said
sourly, dumping the folder of papers into a bin labelled 'TO BE SHREDDED'.
"Anders can wear it. Go home."
* * * * *
Wufei stepped out of the
building and glanced up at the sky, tugging his coat back onto his shoulder as
it slipped off. It looks like it isn't going to snow, so it should be
okay... Pulling out his phone, he flipped it open and dialled the apartment
a little awkwardly. I've _got_ to program that into speed
dial...
< < ...yes? > >
"Duo, it's
me."
< < 'Fei! > > Duo's voice brightened slightly. < <
What did the evil woman say? > >
He snorted. "I'm going to tell her
you said that."
< < If you do, I'll tell her I was just repeating
what you say. > > Duo's voice dropped. < < So... is everything all
right? > >
"It's healing. She insulted me. The usual... They want
me back at work tomorrow."
< < Figured, > > Duo said quietly.
< < It's okay. > >
"That's partly why I called," Wufei said.
"I don't have that many books and things at home, and I really don't want you to
get bored while I'm gone in the mornings." You didn't seem bored before,
he added to himself, but you also didn't seem particularly...
connected. You're coming out of it now..."I thought we could go shopping
together. Have lunch somewhere, visit a few bookshops or
something...?"
There was silence on the other end of the
line.
"Duo?"
< < Umm... that would be cool. >
>
"Great!" Wufei suddenly realised he was grinning. "I'll be home in
about fifteen minutes. Is that enough time for you to be ready?"
<
< Sure. See you, 'Fei > >
"See you soon." Wufei hung up and
headed for the Blazer, trying to get his normal calm expression on
straight.
----------
Duo was waiting inside the main door of the
apartment building when Wufei pulled into the carpark, and was over to the
Blazer before Wufei could climb out.
"So, what did Sally say about you
driving yourself in? Or was that what she insulted you about?" he asked, smiling
a little nervously.
"She didn't tell me not to, this time, and she still
doesn't know I did it," Wufei replied, keeping his voice even with an effort.
He's got his hair in a ponytail? No plait? And Quatre has an incredibly good
eye for colour... the new clothes suit him perfectly. He looks great,
even though he's still too thin...
I wonder which boxers he's
wearing? He swallowed and his eyes widened a fraction with that thought, but
he was fairly sure he hadn't blushed.
"Well, I'll drive now," Duo
said firmly. "Move over. How did you drive, anyway? The ignition and
shift lever are on the right!"
"It's not easy," Wufei said dryly, sliding
over, and it's not comfortable either, he added privately, "but it is
possible. I had to learn in a hurry during the war." He thought for a moment,
frowning. "Absolutely nothing went smoothly on that mission. I was
driving a manual, too..."
"Ow!" Duo shook his head, putting the Blazer
into 'drive' and heading for the road. "Left or right? And why didn't you bail
and steal a new car?"
"Left. It was a truck and I had Nataku on the
back."
"Ah. Good reason."
As Wufei gave directions, his left hand
crept out and surreptitiously coiled a strand of Duo's hair around his
fingers.
----------
Wufei eyed the contents of Duo's basket with
interest as they worked their way through the largest bookshop in the mall. I
didn't expect him to go for classics, he mused. Rudyard Kipling...
R. L. Stevenson... Agatha Christie? Ellis Peters?
"Something wrong,
'Fei?" Duo looked at him quizzically.
"No, umm..." Now Wufei was
blushing. "I, ah, I have to confess that I expected you to head for the manga
section," he admitted, running his hand over his hair and tugging at his short
ponytail.
"Yeah, well, that stuff's fun, but..." Duo shrugged. "I mostly
used to read it because it was cheap and easy to carry around, and if it got
trashed or I had to leave it behind it was no big loss. This stuff," he
hefted the basket, "is the really good stuff. Father Maxwell used to let
us borrow books like these from him..."
"Ah."
"Oh, hey,
here's an old friend," Duo said softly, reaching out to trail his fingers
down the cover of a book on display at the end of the children's section.
"Sister Helen read this to the little kids. I pretended I was so tough, y'know,
too old to listen to kids stories... then I hid around the corner and listened
anyway. I think she knew, though. 'It's being loved that makes you real'," he
quoted in a whisper, pulling his hand away from 'The Velveteen Rabbit'. Wufei
lifted the top copy off the stack and dropped it into Duo's basket, then walked
off towards the science fiction shelves before the braided teen could say
anything.
Being loved, or loving someone, he thought, blinking
quickly as his eyes stung. I don't think I was much more than a cardboard
cutout after Meiran died... until Duo came back into my life and I admitted what
I felt for him.
"Want anything from over here?" he called over his
shoulder, surprised that his voice sounded perfectly normal.
I'm
getting more practice at acting normally than I did during the
war!
----------
Later, over lunch, Wufei brought up the
subject of Quatre's party.
"He isn't going to be offended if you don't
feel up to it," he assured Duo. "It isn't a private party; he said there'd be a
lot of business people and political figures there, people who went along with
him and Relena while they were hammering out approval for the Preventers from
the various legislative bodies; that sort of thing. But if you want to go --
"
"No," Duo said, looking down at his plate. "...Not yet."
Wufei
nodded. I can just imagine Quatre's face when he hears that! 'Not yet'
means 'sometime later', after all. "In that case, we could sit up and watch
the fireworks over the lake. The balcony faces the right direction, and the
buildings and trees aren't tall enough to get in the way."
"I like that
idea."
"So do I," Wufei said quietly.
A little later, Duo looked
up. "You know... I think New Year's is almost the only major holiday that I
never gave Une a present for," he mused. "I sent her something for Aztec
New Year, but we were kind of busy at the end of December... and then the war
ended. I missed Chinese New Year, too, now that I come to think of it... now
there was a good opportunity gone to waste," he sighed.
Wufei
raised an eyebrow, then slowly smiled. "We can remedy that. Why end a tradition
that started so auspiciously?"
Duo's grin in response to that was almost
the old Duo back again.
----------
"It can't be just anything,"
Duo insisted, walking through the open- air section of the mall at Wufei's side.
"It has to be sort of appropriate to the holiday, and cool."
"This
is probably the best place to look," Wufei told him, glancing around. "It's full
of gift, craft, and specialty shops, as well as little stalls with one of
everything. If we don't see anything here, we can -- hey!"
"Sorry,"
apologised the man who had almost bumped into him, sliding between him and Duo.
"Didn't see you."
It wasn't the last time; with a fair crowd of shoppers
walking around, looking at the goods on display instead of paying attention to
where they were going, Duo and Wufei kept having to sidestep and dodge. Every
time someone pushed between them and Duo lost sight of his companion for a
second, he tensed up a little more.
Ducking sideways through a chattering
group of women, Duo came up beside Wufei again with an inward sigh of relief,
and grabbed for his coat sleeve without thinking about it. Startled, Wufei
jerked his arm up slightly and looked around to see what had tugged at him, and
Duo let go as if the fabric was hot.
"Uh -- sorry," he muttered,
blushing. "I didn't mean -- "
Wufei took his hand and continued on
without a word, towing the startled teen behind him, and glaring at anyone who
came close enough to possibly separate them.
We're in
public, Duo thought, wide-eyed. He's holding my hand in
public. But -- he doesn't mind? He was always so big on preserving 'face'
in front of strangers... but he's holding my hand!
In
public!
There was a small, happy smile on Duo's face and a sparkle in
his eyes as he followed Wufei through the crowd.
It was another sparkle
that caught Duo's eye a few minutes later, the thin winter sunlight reflecting
off multi-coloured glass. "'Fei?" he said tentatively, tugging the Chinese pilot
to a halt. "Over there... that looks good. What do you think?"
"'A Touch
of Glass'," Wufei murmured, reading the sign over the window of the shop,
shelves filled with stained, etched and painted glass. "Yes, I think that
qualifies as 'cool'. Shall we have a closer look?"
One particular piece
grabbed Duo's attention immediately, and they agreed it was perfect... until
Wufei carefully lifted it off its stand and Duo caught sight of the price tag on
the back. "Oh, no, 'Fei, it's way too expensive," he said, face falling.
"We'll have to find something else."
"Really?" Wufei raised an eyebrow
and juggled the piece around until he could see the back. "Five hundred credits?
That seems about right," he said taking a step towards the cash
register.
"But it's too much!" Duo hissed. "I -- I can't ask you to spend
that much on something that's just a silly joke!"
Surprisingly, Wufei
smirked. "Duo," he said, voice dropping to a whisper, "you aren't the only
person who can spend OZ's money on a present for Une."
"OZ's
money...?"
"You and Heero passed a lot of money over to us, remember? And
I did a little hacking of my own. I had a fair amount left at the end of the
war, and it didn't seem right to spend it, so..." Wufei shrugged, careful of his
one-handed grasp on the stained glass. "I put it in a bank account, to wait
until I decided what to do with it. It's earning obscene amounts of interest,
and this won't even make a dent." He smiled at Duo's hopeful, relieved
expression. "Happier about it, now?"
"Yeah. Like you said, we're
continuing a beautiful tradition, right?" Duo said, smiling
again.
"Right." Wufei carried the piece over to the counter and handed it
over to be wrapped. "What's your delivery schedule like?" he asked the cashier,
spotting a small sign on the counter saying 'WE DELIVER'.
"It can go
tonight or tomorrow, sir," the woman told him, peeling the price tag
off.
"Tomorrow," he and Duo chorused, then grinned at each
other.
"It's a New Year's present," Wufei explained.
"Well, in
that case, we have gift wraps and cards," the saleswoman said, dimpling at them.
"No extra charge."
"Oh, yes," Duo muttered, patting his pockets for a
pen. "It's got to have a card..."
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