Another unfinished bit...
Apr. 10th, 2002 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zebralittle52I'm amazed at all the junk I kept on my hard drive... talk about dust! Here's another unfinished GW, only ever plunked out a beginning, some middle, and a wee bit of end. There's *lots* of stuff missing in between...
Unfinished and RAW. This would have been an AU 4x2/2x4 with Trowa added to the mix later on. I don't own Gundam Wing or it's characters, ect...
~...~ Denotes thought
"..." Denotes speech
Not Alone
By Madam Blue
*********************************
AC 201
The artificial sky was already dark when Duo began getting ready for work. After carefully brushing out and braiding his hair, pulling on some tight black jeans and a matching T-shirt, he was almost out the door before he remembered to slip some protection inside his boot. If he was lucky he wouldn't have to use it tonight, but the way things had been lately...
~ Eh, it's a living. ~
*********************************
Quatre read off the address to the cabby. A year had gone by since he'd lost contact with Duo but he'd finally been able to track his missing friend down. Everyone had been in shock at Heero's funeral, stunned that a simple afternoon walk was able to accomplish what two wars and Duo's cooking could not. From what Wufei had told him, the accident involved a mime and a falling piano, past that the details got fuzzy. The service had been huge. It was the only way Relena knew how to say goodbye.
It was business that made him start looking for Duo a couple months back, but it was guilt that fueled him now. Quatre was still surprised that his friends old phone number had been disconnected and mail forwarded to a holding station on the other side of town without him even knowing. A true friend would have known. Hell, a true friend would have helped him move!
~ I can't believe I wasn't there for him. How could I have left it at a handshake, some flowers and a 'Sorry, I'm needed back at work.'? I just hope he's all right. ~
The cab quickly rolled past dirty buildings and neon lights.
Quatre was worried about Duo.
Quatre was convinced he'd let his friend down.
The cab stopped in front of where Duo worked.
Quatre was in Hell.
From the moment he walked through the door he knew this was one place he did NOT want to be. Double-checking the neon sign, he cringed when the address was confirmed. Rocket Town, a gentleman's "club" catering to men... by men.
~ Duo works here??? ~
Flashing his ID and paying the cover, he gave quick thanks that he'd already turned twenty-one. A short ramp past coatrooms and an empty niche where the bouncer presumably might sit lead Quatre to a huge club. The fully stocked bar ran the length of one wall, a stage ran along the opposite and in the middle danced a sea of men under a glittering two story high canopy. Steep staircases to the second floor hugged the walls and aqua-blue eyes had to squint to make out vague figures drifting along the dark upstairs balconies.
After elbowing his way to the bar as politely as he could, Quatre tried to get the bar tenders attention.
~ They call THAT a uniform? It's just leather straps and glitter! No! No, don't bend down! Arg! Look-at-his-face-Look-at-his-face-Look-at-his-face! ~
Thankfully (to the blushing blonde anyway), the bartender quickly stood and turned around.
"Can I get you something to drink sweetie?"
"Huh? Uh... oh! No, thank you. I'm looking for Duo. He's supposed to be working tonight. Is he here somewhere?"
The bartender, Bobby according to his gold glitter nametag, gave Quatre a careful once over but apparently decided the cute blonde wasn't looking for trouble. (Quatre still knew how to get his way with only two wide eyes and a pout.) "Yeah, he just headed upstairs. Um... if this is social you might want to wait down here till he's done working. You know how it is, don't want to interrupt a professional on the job..."
Quatre stood there for a minute, his mind running that information over and over, trying to make those words mean anything but the obvious. ~ Duo... upstairs... job... professional... working... oh no Oh NO! ~
He rushed through the crowd blindly, dodging and weaving his way up the nearest staircase, only to freeze again inside the upstairs room.
The entire floor was a maze of thin walls and dark corners; dim lighting giving the impression of privacy when everything was really out in the open. And there was a LOT to see. Every available space was filled with writhing bodies, men in every position the Arabian had every heard of... and a few he hadn't! He peered into the darkness, scanning for his friend around each turn. Blushing furiously, Quatre tried to ignore the groans, grunts, moans and slaps that filled the air, his nose turning at the pervasive smell of sweat and sex that curled around him.
~ I've got to get Duo away from here. If I had only known... I swear I won't abandon him again! ~
A flash of something caught his eye and Quatre backed up a few steps. There was Duo, still dressed in black after all these years, kneeling over someone who was stretched out on the floor. Without thinking Quatre ran down the hall, grabbing his friend away from the stranger. "Duo! Stop! You don't have to do this!"
Stumbling, Duo whirled on his unexpected attacker. "Listen buddy! I... QUATRE??? Get down!"
An unsteady fist crashed through the air right where Quatre's head had been, and the startled blonde turned just in time to see Duo club the drunken man back down to the floor.
"Ok, he's going to be out for a while. Would you mind grabbing his other arm? I want to get him off the floor."
"Where are we taking him?"
Duo grunted under the large man's dead weight. "The managers office. They'll bundle him into a cab and send him home. After we drop him off you can tell me what you're doing here, ok?"
Quatre just nodded, keeping his eyes on the floor and away from the glory holes in the wall.
*********************************
Trying to lug a stranger down the back stairwell was not what Quatre had in mind when he's started out that evening, but eventually they made it to the managers office, dropped of their dead weight, and found an empty storage room to talk.
"So, Quatre, what's up man? I don't see you in ages and then you show up here? A bit much for a coincidence, don't you think?"
Quatre blushed a little in embarrassment. "I... I know it's been a while, and I don't have an excuse for not keeping in touch. I'm sorry. But you could have at least let me know you were moving! I would have helped, you know."
Duo laughed. "Oh yeah, like I can see you hefting around moving boxes. No offense, but I just don't see that happening."
A grin told Duo that Quatre wasn't offended. "Ok, I would have hired someone to help you move... but that's beside the point!"
"Sure, sure... maybe I should have told you... but I wasn't exactly thinking straight back then. I had to get away from that house, away from all those memories of Heero. Hell, I still have nightmares about mimes, you know? So I moved, found a new place to work, and here I am. Now, why are you here?"
"Actually I'm here to offer you a job. There's a new department opening in my security division that I think you'd be perfect for."
Duo blinked. "You're kidding, right? Winner Inc.'s into construction and all that scientific stuff, I don't do any of that."
"Actually, what we need is someone who can cut down on the number of break-in's we've been having, and I figured you'd be perfect! All you'd have to do is figure out how you'd break into our facilities and then we'd block those ways in!"
Quatre seemed excited about the position, he really wanted Duo to take the job, but all he got was a shrug. "But Q, I already have a job. The pay's good and I get to work nights and...."
"Oh Duo. You can do better than this! You're smart and skilled, there's no reason to lower yourself in such a way..."
"Huh?"
"..and if you fell on hard times you should have called me! I'd have helped, you know that!"
"Well, I..."
"To think you felt so low about yourself you didn't try to get a better job. There's other ways to make a living than selling yourself!"
"WHAT?"
"And having drunk men attacking you is unacceptable! Don't they have bouncers to handle people like that?"
"Quatre, I AM the bouncer!"
*blink blink*
"...oh."
*********************************
Five days later Quatre was still blushing over his misunderstanding.
After laughing to ease the awkward moment he'd told Duo the job offer still stood. He knew his friend wanted it, that the adrenaline rush it promised was a sweet temptation, but all Duo said was "I'll think about it. I wouldn't feel right about jumping my lease and quitting my job on short notice though..."
Having other things to do on the colony, Quatre let Duo know the offer was always open and that he'd be in town for the rest of the week. So Quatre went back to his hotel room and waited.
~ Let's see. Called the health department Monday, the zoning commission right after that... three days for paperwork... Duo should be coming by right about... ~
*Ding Dong*
~ God I'm good. ~
Pausing a moment before opening the door, Quatre schooled a calm look to greet his friend with.
"Duo, hello! Please come in."
"How's it going Q? Errr... that job thing still open?"
*********************************
The following months flew by Duo in a whirl. It was strange having an office, but between the unlimited expense account and a standing order to be left alone to do his job in secret (so that no instillation has any previous warning before getting hit,) he found he really enjoyed his new job.
Because he was always traveling from one colony to the next, he never bothered getting a new apartment. Whenever he headed back to headquarters between assignments he crashed at Quatre's. Eventually, the guestroom became his home.
*********************************
(Insert Duo and Quatre getting it on here, including an angsty scene where Trowa comes home after a tour in the circus to find Duo asleep in his bed...)
*********************************
Quatre walked into the reading room looking for his two bickering princes. Getting their attention, he outlined his plans for that evening. Few things brought people together like having a common foe, and tonight the enemy was...
"Opera?"
"Oh yes, Trowa, I'm sure you'll love it! It's for a charity one of my sisters is involved in."
"We gotta put on penguin suits just to be bored for three hours?"
"They're performing Verdi's Aïda. Don't worry Duo, it has a gruesome ending. You'll love it."
Seeing neither face looked overly enthused, Quatre pulled out his trump card with a sign. "Oh course, I would never force you to go. It's for my sister so I have to be there tonight, but I could always go alone. I'm sure there's something on TV you both could watch..."
One hour later Quatre's sister picked up three tuxedo-clad men to accompany her to the opera.
One hour after that the house lights dimmed and Quatre found himself sitting between two sulking lovers. (But damn they looked good, and those pouts were so CUTE!)
Another hour passed and the enthralled blonde glanced quickly to either side, glad that his companions appeared to be enjoying themselves. ~ I just wish I knew what they were thinking.. ~
Meanwhile...
~ Aw, hell no! Don't trust him! He's the bad guy! He's scum! Don't do it man, you'll be sorry! ~
And...
~ Hmm... I wonder what extras they added to their pulley system to make that set piece move so quickly... ~
*********************************
All to soon the final curtain rose and everyone found themselves in the gallery. This was the part Duo hated, the social mixing that was nothing more than polite snobbery as people showed off how much money they had and how much more important they were because of how much they had donated. As he quietly melted into the background, he watched Quatre work the crowd. The gentle man knew everyone's soft spots, stroking an ego here and there to loosen their wallets for his sister's cause.
~ That's just one more reason to love the guy. All that money, all that stuff, and not once have I ever felt small or cheep next to him. He's real. ~
Watching peacocks in penguin suits kiss up to each other quickly got boring so Duo wandered back towards the theater. Slipping into the darkened auditorium he quietly made his way up onto the stage.
A whisper of sound made him look up. High above the battens and pipes a flickering shadow moved along the ceiling grid. Aside from a creepy Phantom of the Opera flashback, Duo's curiosity drove him up the metal ladder to the steel beams above. Walking along the girders, weaving around the web of cables and rope, Duo found his Phantom peering at the tension blocks and lift lines.
"Hey Trowa. What's up? Besides us that is."
A raised eyebrow was the only outward sign but Duo was sure the other boy was surprised to see him.
"I thought you were with Quatre at the fund raiser."
"Eh, those old biddies got to boring for me. This is way more interesting than they are."
"And you do realize we're two stories above the stage?"
Duo looked down at his foot wide perch. "This? Oh, this is nothing! Of course you'd be used to it with the circus and all, but I was higher up with less foot space way back in Cat Burglary 101."
Slender arms crossed and Duo thought he saw something glint in the visible green eye. "So you've always been a thief."
A hard violet stare answered that statement, but Duo decided not to take the challenge... yet. "I used to be, it was part of my training. But I stopped doing that years ago. I mean sure, every now and then I break in someplace just to see if I still can, but I never take anything. The last break in at The New Met? That was me."
"I heard about that. They said someone barged in where they didn't belong and nearly ruined something priceless."
"Come on! All I did was put party hats on the statues and wrote dirty limericks on the insides of the glass cases! I'd never damage... priceless..."
It took a second, but Duo finally figured out exactly what the other man was saying. "Look Trowa, I know the value of rare and wonderful things AND I know the pain when something like that is taken away. I would NEVER purposely damage something that could hurt someone else."
Duo started walking back to the ladder, he didn't want to start a fight but couldn't resist one last comment. "Also, it's one thing to break into a fortress under heavy guard and another to waltz into an abandoned house when the owners gone all the time. Why don't you think about that?"
The rest of the evening was spent in thoughtful silence.
*********************************
(Insert more here, cause I suck. Some sort of slow build up, Duo and Trowa realizing they each gave Quatre something unique and that blondie really needs both of them.)
*********************************
"You've always liked animals, haven't you?"
"Yes. They're honest. No matter what they're feeling, they don't pretend to be anything else than what they are. Hungry, tired, angry... everything is so simple when you're honest."
Duo scratched the back of his head, hoping to understand the other half of his lovers soul. "I've always said it's best to tell the truth, but us humans always make things more complicated than they have to be."
"We do, it's what sets us apart from them. I used to wish I could de-evolve, somehow revert to something primitive and simpler than what I was. A bird maybe... But then I met Quatre and for some reason he loved me, and after that I was afraid to change. I was afraid that any change might cause him to stop wanting me, so I continued the routines we started during the war. I kept leaving, if only to keep him wanting my return. I stayed silent so he'd ask what I was thinking. But thinks changed anyway, didn't they?"
"That part of life, Trowa. If you don't change, if you stop living, that's when you die."
"And here we are. Quatre's alive, you're alive, but I don't know where I fit anymore. Everything else has changed and if I don't change too I'll get left behind. I know that. I'm... just not sure I remember how."
A smile grew as Duo tilted his head in thought. "You know, you're pretty articulate when you've got something important to say, but you're saying it to the wrong person. You should be telling all this to Quatre, not me. I mean, you're not that bad a guy sometimes and I guess I could get to like you, but Quatre thinks you hung the moon."
"But he has you now."
A sad light dimmed violet eyes and Trowa saw more of the real Duo than he'd ever seen before. "Look at it this way, ok? I've already had a once in a lifetime love. I had the moon and the stars and long Saturdays snuggled on the couch doing nothing. I HAD that, get it? As in, don't have any more. As in, it's gone and never coming back. You've heard the jokes about not looking for Mister Right, just Mister Right Now? Well, Mister Right's gone for good and all I'm left with is 'Now'. And 'Now' can be a very empty place. It can be cold and lonely and I don't want to be there anymore. It's not like I'm looking for another Heero, cause there aren't any more out there like him and I know that. All I want is someone I can wrap my arms around, someone I can touch without them disappearing. For some reason that only people with space hearts can understand, Quatre wants to be that person for me. All of that in no way makes his feelings for you any different. He loves you and he needs you, and that will never change. Only now he needs me too and I... I need what he has to give. Hell, if there's one person on the face of this earth with a heart big enough for two people, he's it."
Trowa turned to look behind him, wishing for once that he was as good at words as his... friend? Maybe they weren't friends but because of Quatre they had already become something more. "Welcome to the family."
With a smile, Duo grabbed Trowa's hand and started to drag the taller man back to the house. This had been an important talk and Quatre needed to be filled in.
*********************************
(It probably would have ended with smut, too...)
Oh well... anyone out there want to finish it for me? Free to a good home, and all that...
Unfinished and RAW. This would have been an AU 4x2/2x4 with Trowa added to the mix later on. I don't own Gundam Wing or it's characters, ect...
~...~ Denotes thought
"..." Denotes speech
Not Alone
By Madam Blue
*********************************
AC 201
The artificial sky was already dark when Duo began getting ready for work. After carefully brushing out and braiding his hair, pulling on some tight black jeans and a matching T-shirt, he was almost out the door before he remembered to slip some protection inside his boot. If he was lucky he wouldn't have to use it tonight, but the way things had been lately...
~ Eh, it's a living. ~
*********************************
Quatre read off the address to the cabby. A year had gone by since he'd lost contact with Duo but he'd finally been able to track his missing friend down. Everyone had been in shock at Heero's funeral, stunned that a simple afternoon walk was able to accomplish what two wars and Duo's cooking could not. From what Wufei had told him, the accident involved a mime and a falling piano, past that the details got fuzzy. The service had been huge. It was the only way Relena knew how to say goodbye.
It was business that made him start looking for Duo a couple months back, but it was guilt that fueled him now. Quatre was still surprised that his friends old phone number had been disconnected and mail forwarded to a holding station on the other side of town without him even knowing. A true friend would have known. Hell, a true friend would have helped him move!
~ I can't believe I wasn't there for him. How could I have left it at a handshake, some flowers and a 'Sorry, I'm needed back at work.'? I just hope he's all right. ~
The cab quickly rolled past dirty buildings and neon lights.
Quatre was worried about Duo.
Quatre was convinced he'd let his friend down.
The cab stopped in front of where Duo worked.
Quatre was in Hell.
From the moment he walked through the door he knew this was one place he did NOT want to be. Double-checking the neon sign, he cringed when the address was confirmed. Rocket Town, a gentleman's "club" catering to men... by men.
~ Duo works here??? ~
Flashing his ID and paying the cover, he gave quick thanks that he'd already turned twenty-one. A short ramp past coatrooms and an empty niche where the bouncer presumably might sit lead Quatre to a huge club. The fully stocked bar ran the length of one wall, a stage ran along the opposite and in the middle danced a sea of men under a glittering two story high canopy. Steep staircases to the second floor hugged the walls and aqua-blue eyes had to squint to make out vague figures drifting along the dark upstairs balconies.
After elbowing his way to the bar as politely as he could, Quatre tried to get the bar tenders attention.
~ They call THAT a uniform? It's just leather straps and glitter! No! No, don't bend down! Arg! Look-at-his-face-Look-at-his-face-Look-at-his-face! ~
Thankfully (to the blushing blonde anyway), the bartender quickly stood and turned around.
"Can I get you something to drink sweetie?"
"Huh? Uh... oh! No, thank you. I'm looking for Duo. He's supposed to be working tonight. Is he here somewhere?"
The bartender, Bobby according to his gold glitter nametag, gave Quatre a careful once over but apparently decided the cute blonde wasn't looking for trouble. (Quatre still knew how to get his way with only two wide eyes and a pout.) "Yeah, he just headed upstairs. Um... if this is social you might want to wait down here till he's done working. You know how it is, don't want to interrupt a professional on the job..."
Quatre stood there for a minute, his mind running that information over and over, trying to make those words mean anything but the obvious. ~ Duo... upstairs... job... professional... working... oh no Oh NO! ~
He rushed through the crowd blindly, dodging and weaving his way up the nearest staircase, only to freeze again inside the upstairs room.
The entire floor was a maze of thin walls and dark corners; dim lighting giving the impression of privacy when everything was really out in the open. And there was a LOT to see. Every available space was filled with writhing bodies, men in every position the Arabian had every heard of... and a few he hadn't! He peered into the darkness, scanning for his friend around each turn. Blushing furiously, Quatre tried to ignore the groans, grunts, moans and slaps that filled the air, his nose turning at the pervasive smell of sweat and sex that curled around him.
~ I've got to get Duo away from here. If I had only known... I swear I won't abandon him again! ~
A flash of something caught his eye and Quatre backed up a few steps. There was Duo, still dressed in black after all these years, kneeling over someone who was stretched out on the floor. Without thinking Quatre ran down the hall, grabbing his friend away from the stranger. "Duo! Stop! You don't have to do this!"
Stumbling, Duo whirled on his unexpected attacker. "Listen buddy! I... QUATRE??? Get down!"
An unsteady fist crashed through the air right where Quatre's head had been, and the startled blonde turned just in time to see Duo club the drunken man back down to the floor.
"Ok, he's going to be out for a while. Would you mind grabbing his other arm? I want to get him off the floor."
"Where are we taking him?"
Duo grunted under the large man's dead weight. "The managers office. They'll bundle him into a cab and send him home. After we drop him off you can tell me what you're doing here, ok?"
Quatre just nodded, keeping his eyes on the floor and away from the glory holes in the wall.
*********************************
Trying to lug a stranger down the back stairwell was not what Quatre had in mind when he's started out that evening, but eventually they made it to the managers office, dropped of their dead weight, and found an empty storage room to talk.
"So, Quatre, what's up man? I don't see you in ages and then you show up here? A bit much for a coincidence, don't you think?"
Quatre blushed a little in embarrassment. "I... I know it's been a while, and I don't have an excuse for not keeping in touch. I'm sorry. But you could have at least let me know you were moving! I would have helped, you know."
Duo laughed. "Oh yeah, like I can see you hefting around moving boxes. No offense, but I just don't see that happening."
A grin told Duo that Quatre wasn't offended. "Ok, I would have hired someone to help you move... but that's beside the point!"
"Sure, sure... maybe I should have told you... but I wasn't exactly thinking straight back then. I had to get away from that house, away from all those memories of Heero. Hell, I still have nightmares about mimes, you know? So I moved, found a new place to work, and here I am. Now, why are you here?"
"Actually I'm here to offer you a job. There's a new department opening in my security division that I think you'd be perfect for."
Duo blinked. "You're kidding, right? Winner Inc.'s into construction and all that scientific stuff, I don't do any of that."
"Actually, what we need is someone who can cut down on the number of break-in's we've been having, and I figured you'd be perfect! All you'd have to do is figure out how you'd break into our facilities and then we'd block those ways in!"
Quatre seemed excited about the position, he really wanted Duo to take the job, but all he got was a shrug. "But Q, I already have a job. The pay's good and I get to work nights and...."
"Oh Duo. You can do better than this! You're smart and skilled, there's no reason to lower yourself in such a way..."
"Huh?"
"..and if you fell on hard times you should have called me! I'd have helped, you know that!"
"Well, I..."
"To think you felt so low about yourself you didn't try to get a better job. There's other ways to make a living than selling yourself!"
"WHAT?"
"And having drunk men attacking you is unacceptable! Don't they have bouncers to handle people like that?"
"Quatre, I AM the bouncer!"
*blink blink*
"...oh."
*********************************
Five days later Quatre was still blushing over his misunderstanding.
After laughing to ease the awkward moment he'd told Duo the job offer still stood. He knew his friend wanted it, that the adrenaline rush it promised was a sweet temptation, but all Duo said was "I'll think about it. I wouldn't feel right about jumping my lease and quitting my job on short notice though..."
Having other things to do on the colony, Quatre let Duo know the offer was always open and that he'd be in town for the rest of the week. So Quatre went back to his hotel room and waited.
~ Let's see. Called the health department Monday, the zoning commission right after that... three days for paperwork... Duo should be coming by right about... ~
*Ding Dong*
~ God I'm good. ~
Pausing a moment before opening the door, Quatre schooled a calm look to greet his friend with.
"Duo, hello! Please come in."
"How's it going Q? Errr... that job thing still open?"
*********************************
The following months flew by Duo in a whirl. It was strange having an office, but between the unlimited expense account and a standing order to be left alone to do his job in secret (so that no instillation has any previous warning before getting hit,) he found he really enjoyed his new job.
Because he was always traveling from one colony to the next, he never bothered getting a new apartment. Whenever he headed back to headquarters between assignments he crashed at Quatre's. Eventually, the guestroom became his home.
*********************************
(Insert Duo and Quatre getting it on here, including an angsty scene where Trowa comes home after a tour in the circus to find Duo asleep in his bed...)
*********************************
Quatre walked into the reading room looking for his two bickering princes. Getting their attention, he outlined his plans for that evening. Few things brought people together like having a common foe, and tonight the enemy was...
"Opera?"
"Oh yes, Trowa, I'm sure you'll love it! It's for a charity one of my sisters is involved in."
"We gotta put on penguin suits just to be bored for three hours?"
"They're performing Verdi's Aïda. Don't worry Duo, it has a gruesome ending. You'll love it."
Seeing neither face looked overly enthused, Quatre pulled out his trump card with a sign. "Oh course, I would never force you to go. It's for my sister so I have to be there tonight, but I could always go alone. I'm sure there's something on TV you both could watch..."
One hour later Quatre's sister picked up three tuxedo-clad men to accompany her to the opera.
One hour after that the house lights dimmed and Quatre found himself sitting between two sulking lovers. (But damn they looked good, and those pouts were so CUTE!)
Another hour passed and the enthralled blonde glanced quickly to either side, glad that his companions appeared to be enjoying themselves. ~ I just wish I knew what they were thinking.. ~
Meanwhile...
~ Aw, hell no! Don't trust him! He's the bad guy! He's scum! Don't do it man, you'll be sorry! ~
And...
~ Hmm... I wonder what extras they added to their pulley system to make that set piece move so quickly... ~
*********************************
All to soon the final curtain rose and everyone found themselves in the gallery. This was the part Duo hated, the social mixing that was nothing more than polite snobbery as people showed off how much money they had and how much more important they were because of how much they had donated. As he quietly melted into the background, he watched Quatre work the crowd. The gentle man knew everyone's soft spots, stroking an ego here and there to loosen their wallets for his sister's cause.
~ That's just one more reason to love the guy. All that money, all that stuff, and not once have I ever felt small or cheep next to him. He's real. ~
Watching peacocks in penguin suits kiss up to each other quickly got boring so Duo wandered back towards the theater. Slipping into the darkened auditorium he quietly made his way up onto the stage.
A whisper of sound made him look up. High above the battens and pipes a flickering shadow moved along the ceiling grid. Aside from a creepy Phantom of the Opera flashback, Duo's curiosity drove him up the metal ladder to the steel beams above. Walking along the girders, weaving around the web of cables and rope, Duo found his Phantom peering at the tension blocks and lift lines.
"Hey Trowa. What's up? Besides us that is."
A raised eyebrow was the only outward sign but Duo was sure the other boy was surprised to see him.
"I thought you were with Quatre at the fund raiser."
"Eh, those old biddies got to boring for me. This is way more interesting than they are."
"And you do realize we're two stories above the stage?"
Duo looked down at his foot wide perch. "This? Oh, this is nothing! Of course you'd be used to it with the circus and all, but I was higher up with less foot space way back in Cat Burglary 101."
Slender arms crossed and Duo thought he saw something glint in the visible green eye. "So you've always been a thief."
A hard violet stare answered that statement, but Duo decided not to take the challenge... yet. "I used to be, it was part of my training. But I stopped doing that years ago. I mean sure, every now and then I break in someplace just to see if I still can, but I never take anything. The last break in at The New Met? That was me."
"I heard about that. They said someone barged in where they didn't belong and nearly ruined something priceless."
"Come on! All I did was put party hats on the statues and wrote dirty limericks on the insides of the glass cases! I'd never damage... priceless..."
It took a second, but Duo finally figured out exactly what the other man was saying. "Look Trowa, I know the value of rare and wonderful things AND I know the pain when something like that is taken away. I would NEVER purposely damage something that could hurt someone else."
Duo started walking back to the ladder, he didn't want to start a fight but couldn't resist one last comment. "Also, it's one thing to break into a fortress under heavy guard and another to waltz into an abandoned house when the owners gone all the time. Why don't you think about that?"
The rest of the evening was spent in thoughtful silence.
*********************************
(Insert more here, cause I suck. Some sort of slow build up, Duo and Trowa realizing they each gave Quatre something unique and that blondie really needs both of them.)
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"You've always liked animals, haven't you?"
"Yes. They're honest. No matter what they're feeling, they don't pretend to be anything else than what they are. Hungry, tired, angry... everything is so simple when you're honest."
Duo scratched the back of his head, hoping to understand the other half of his lovers soul. "I've always said it's best to tell the truth, but us humans always make things more complicated than they have to be."
"We do, it's what sets us apart from them. I used to wish I could de-evolve, somehow revert to something primitive and simpler than what I was. A bird maybe... But then I met Quatre and for some reason he loved me, and after that I was afraid to change. I was afraid that any change might cause him to stop wanting me, so I continued the routines we started during the war. I kept leaving, if only to keep him wanting my return. I stayed silent so he'd ask what I was thinking. But thinks changed anyway, didn't they?"
"That part of life, Trowa. If you don't change, if you stop living, that's when you die."
"And here we are. Quatre's alive, you're alive, but I don't know where I fit anymore. Everything else has changed and if I don't change too I'll get left behind. I know that. I'm... just not sure I remember how."
A smile grew as Duo tilted his head in thought. "You know, you're pretty articulate when you've got something important to say, but you're saying it to the wrong person. You should be telling all this to Quatre, not me. I mean, you're not that bad a guy sometimes and I guess I could get to like you, but Quatre thinks you hung the moon."
"But he has you now."
A sad light dimmed violet eyes and Trowa saw more of the real Duo than he'd ever seen before. "Look at it this way, ok? I've already had a once in a lifetime love. I had the moon and the stars and long Saturdays snuggled on the couch doing nothing. I HAD that, get it? As in, don't have any more. As in, it's gone and never coming back. You've heard the jokes about not looking for Mister Right, just Mister Right Now? Well, Mister Right's gone for good and all I'm left with is 'Now'. And 'Now' can be a very empty place. It can be cold and lonely and I don't want to be there anymore. It's not like I'm looking for another Heero, cause there aren't any more out there like him and I know that. All I want is someone I can wrap my arms around, someone I can touch without them disappearing. For some reason that only people with space hearts can understand, Quatre wants to be that person for me. All of that in no way makes his feelings for you any different. He loves you and he needs you, and that will never change. Only now he needs me too and I... I need what he has to give. Hell, if there's one person on the face of this earth with a heart big enough for two people, he's it."
Trowa turned to look behind him, wishing for once that he was as good at words as his... friend? Maybe they weren't friends but because of Quatre they had already become something more. "Welcome to the family."
With a smile, Duo grabbed Trowa's hand and started to drag the taller man back to the house. This had been an important talk and Quatre needed to be filled in.
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(It probably would have ended with smut, too...)
Oh well... anyone out there want to finish it for me? Free to a good home, and all that...
no subject
Date: 2002-04-13 01:13 pm (UTC)~Lacey
awww, shucks...
Date: 2002-04-13 02:38 pm (UTC)