Wufei's Problem
1/2
Wufei had come to the conclusion that this was not good. This was, in fact, as far from good as he could possibly come. Things could just not get any worse.
What, you wonder, couldn't possibly get worse?
The whole thing began just like so many other stories, with a young man who was trying to break away from his parents and find his own way in life.
Unfortunately for him, Wufei chose to do so in a way that led him to a whole new world of problems.
The first part of his problem was that his parents were honor-obsessed traditionalists who wouldn't look outside the box unless someone forced them. That was why he had been pushing so hard when he declared that he was not going to marry the daughter of one of the family business partners - he was gay.
He then told his parents that he had meet someone. A guy. That had shut them up for a few days, while he and his best friend Heero settled in to their new apartment and he started his classes. Naively he had thought that his problems were over, but no.
It didn't take long before his parents started questioning just what kind of guy he was seeing, obviously trying to find out things other than gender to complain about.
So Wufei had told them all about his imaginary boyfriend, making sure to get a couple of good kicks at his parent's narrow minded stubbornness as he did so.
He had told them he was a store clerk (his parents had been appalled), white (his father had looked like he had swallowed something that had been stuck under a homeless man's shoes) a Christian (his mother had nearly fainted at that) and how he was openly gay and had no plans of playing the dirty little secret. It had been hard not to laugh out loud when he told them that. He refused to give the name of his creation with the excuse that his parents would use their influence to have him investigated. Which he knew just as well as they did, that they would.
He knew that they were both hopping that he was going through a phase and would someday get an acceptable wife, spawn some children and take over the company. Personally, Wufei wouldn't mind having a kid or two, it was the wife and the company that he didn't want.
He had three older and a lot more competent sisters who would gladly get married, pop out numerous children and spend the rest of their life stuck in an office. Wufei, on the other hand, had other plans and none of them fit into what his parents wanted him to do. So, therefore the imaginary boyfriend.
To have a serious boyfriend would be the first step towards proving once and for all that being gay wasn't a phase and he wasn't going to follow their narrow-minded, outdated views of the world.
If he had to be honest, he had known that it was a bad idea to lie and he had known that it was going to come back and bite him on the ass. Too bad that he had been far more focused on just avoiding the whole problem than solving it.
Then, as predicted, the lies he had built up soon threatened to tumble down over his head.
Why? Because of the annual Chang Christmas party.
The party that brought the city's, if not the country's, biggest businessmen together. Of course he should have known that they would have wanted him to bring his boyfriend, because what was the point of having a gay son if you couldn't get some good publicity out of it? He couldn't say no; no one said no to the Chang Christmas party, it just was not done
If his family had been normal, he would just have gotten any guy available to play his boyfriend over the holidays. Unfortunately, that was also not the case and his father would most definitely do a background check on whomever he brought along with him.
He would just have told them that they had broken up, if it wasn't for the fact that his parents expected them to. Gay people could not stay together in a working relationship, at least according to his parents.
The problem, Wufei decided, was not to find the perfect guy - it was to get him.
The upside and the downside of this whole mess was that Wufei had based all his lies on an actual person.
His "boyfriend" could in fact be found between twenty-seven to thirty-two steps away from his front door. Wufei knew - he had counted them several times.
Wufei had never bought so many toys in his life as in the last year since he moved in to his new apartment and realized that the hottest guy alive worked in the toy store across the street.
It had all started a fateful day last spring when he, in the middle of unpacking a box containing his new hard drive, suddenly remembered that it was his niece's fourth birthday. In a panic, he had dropped everything and sprinted towards the store that he had only walked passed but never entered.
The big, colorful sign above the door proclaimed that WonderWorld had the latest and best of all toys.
He had hurried in and stopped to stare at the endless rows of toys that were spread out before him. He quickly realized that he had no idea what he was looking for.
Then salvation came in the form of a lean man in his early twenties wearing a red WonderWorld shirt with a teddy bear sticking out of the chest pocket. His nametag above it had the words, "Hello my name is; DUO :)" written on it in big, red letters.
Wufei had taken one look at the perfect body, the beautiful face and the smile and been totally lost since then.
After a bit of confused stuttering, Wufei had finally managed to explain that he needed a birthday present for a four year old girl. Duo had then patiently guided him through the store and suggested several things until they finally found something that Wufei thought would fit the quiet little girl. Half an hour after he arrived, Wufei left with a Brio train-set and a huge crush.
Since then, Duo had helped him find the perfect gifts for all his nieces, nephews and cousin's children. Wufei had even bought gifts for his cousin's cousin's children, who he had never even met before, simply to have an excuse to buy toys.
The result of this, besides the obvious excuse to see Duo, was not only that he had gone to visit his relatives more often than ever before, but also that the rumor that he desperately wanted children of his own had spread like wild fire. Now, Wufei didn't have anything against children, he liked them just fine, but he did not have any plans on getting them anytime soon. He was only twenty for God sakes.
It was a good thing that he really enjoyed spending time with his relatives since his sudden interest in visiting even the most distant family member was resulting in an almost endless line of invitations to everything from weddings (he hadn't even known that he had a third cousin twice removed, named Rudolf), to birthdays, funerals and baby showers. The later he had declined when he found out that he was going to be the only male there. He was gay, not a female. But it did give him the excuse to buy several baby toys from Duo that he sent them, so he happily swallowed that blow to his pride for that opportunity.
The bad thing with his many invitations was that more and more people were starting to question just why he never brought his boyfriend along with him. There was only so many times you could tell people that he was out of town or working before they started questioning just what kind of guy you were dating.
So why didn't he just ask Duo on a date? Simple. Because Duo already had a girlfriend.
Ah, now you start to realize Wufei's big problem.
So, not only had he painted himself into a corner by giving his family so many details that there only was one person who could fit into his description and thereby made sure that he could not come clean without confirming his parents prejudices, he had chosen someone he couldn't have.
No matter how this story ended, he was going to be totally humiliated.
Wufei paced back and forth over the floor of the combined living room-kitchen of his apartment. He had to find a solution to all this fast. Preferably, one that made sure that he could still look his mother in the eye afterwards.
But what was he supposed to do? Ask Duo if he wanted to pretend that he was gay and date Wufei just so that he wouldn't have to come clean to his parents? No, that would be too humiliating for words. He could just imagine walking in with a -'Yeah hi, I've been lusting over your straight ass since we first meet and became so obsessed with you that I told my family that we were dating and now they want to meet you. Want to come?' - because that would go over so well. Duo was sure to be jumping in joy.
Wufei groaned and kicked a bundle of cables across the floor. His parents probably wouldn't be too angry with him for lying but they would most likely build up even more prejudice thoughts about gay people. Not the mention the shame he would feel, oh by God, the SHAME.
He was pretty sure that Duo wouldn't turn out to be a homophobic asshole, but there was just so much a straight guy could take before he started squirming. Asking a straight guy to pretend to be gay when it's obvious that you want to fuck him up the ass might make him a bit uncomfortable, no matter how nice he was. God should know that Wufei wouldn't go anywhere with a horny woman who wanted to get into his pants.
He barely had two week to go before the Christmas party and he was no closer a solution now then he had been a year ago.
"Heero! Get off that fucking computer and HELP me!" He screamed in frustration to be heard over the loud sound of battle coming from inside the bedroom next to his.
The sound of roaring beasts stopped and a few seconds later, his friend sighed torturously as he dragged his feet over to the doorway. "No one can help you, not after you put yourself into a mess like this."
"There has to be something we can do."
"We?" Heero snorted as he walked across the room and over to the refrigerator. "They way I see it, there are only two options, come clean or pay off the toy guy to play along."
"There has to be another way." Wufei begged, gripping his hair with both hands.
Heero shrugged as he bent down to search through the refrigerator. "Well, sorry. There isn't."
"But I want there to be one." He whined desperately as he stopped to fall head first onto the couch.
"I don't get how you could possibly think that you were going to get away with this." Heero said as he lined the snacks up on the edge of the counter.
Wufei rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't know, I just really didn't want to think about that part, so I didn't." It might not have been the best plan, but Wufei had enjoyed the fantasy as long as it had lasted.
His friend sighed as he turned towards him and leaned back against the counter. "How can you be so sure that the guy really isn't gay?" He asked, clearly deciding to at least try to be supportive.
"Because he got a g-i-r-l-friend." Wufei spelled out for him.
"Did he tell you that?"
"No, he just answered the phone with 'Hey Hilde' and ended the call with a 'I love you too' not much to question there." That had been the fourth time Wufei had been in the store and still had the pretty little illusion that he had a shot. Duo had been called over to the register from where they was working their way through different kind of Gameboy's and answered the phone that had been held out to him with the words that had destroyed all Wufei's hope.
Heero rolled his eyes and turned back to the refrigerator. "Maybe it was his sister or something." He suggested as he took a sniff at the milk carton before wrinkling his nose and putting it back in.
Wufei snorted. "No one is that happy to get a call from their sister."
"A very close friend?" Heero continued halfheartedly as he picked up a large package of crackers and jammed them under his elbow.
"A close friend that you want to fuck maybe." Wufei muttered, kicking his heal into the armrest
Snickering, Heero loaded up with a couple of apples, a box of cookies and a bottle of coke that he balanced with his other arm. "Then you're screwed." He said before picking up a bag of chips with his mouth and started to leave.
Wufei lifted his head over the edge of the couch, giving his friend a hopeful look. "Hey, Heero. You work in a store, maybe you could ask around if-"
Dropping the chips down behind the coke bottle, Heero cut him off with a loud -"Forget about it."- that was followed by a just as loud snort. "I might not have any plans to stay there much longer but for now I have to work with them and not to mention that none of them would have the bad taste to even pretend to date you." With that he disappeared into the cave that was his room and it didn't take long before the sound of battle could once again be heard.
Wufei dropped back down on the couch with a groan.
Wufei realized that he had no choice, he was going to have to try to pay Duo to pretend to be his boyfriend, it was the only solution. It was going to be horrible and would result in ether disaster or humiliation, probably both.
He stepped in through the doors, mentally preparing himself to just ask Duo to take a part in his insane plan. It couldn't be that embarrassing, right? … God, he was going to die.
Duo was balancing on a ladder in the middle of the store, filling a shelves with radio controlled cars, helicopters, and countless other toys. Wufei took the opportunity to check out that jean-covered ass before its owner started to climb back down again.
"Hey." Duo smiled brightly when he saw him and Wufei pretended that the smile was for seeing him, not the stores biggest customer. "I was wondering when you were going to show up. It's not that long until Christmas you know." He put his elbow against the ladder, giving Wufei a peek of skin as his shirt rode up.
Wufei choked on his carefully prepared question."Yes, lots of kids." He managed to say, realizing that he was never going to be able to just ask, he was going to have to build up to it. Translation, he was a coward who wanted an easy way out of his problem. His only choice was to vaguely talk around his question and hope not to have to say the words "Want to pretend to be my boyfriend? I'll pay you." Because treating his crush like a prostitute was just not on his list of things to do before he died.
"So whom do we start with?" Duo said, rubbing his hand together like they were about take one a big mission.
"Chun." He blurted before realizing that that Duo couldn't possibly remember who his cousin's daughter was.
Duo tipped his head to the side, clearly thinking hard for a moment. "That was the girl you bought the painting set to, right?"
Wufei blinked in surprise. "Yeah."
"Did she like it?"
Despite his nerves, Wufei couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, her father called me up a few days later to thank me personally for giving her the tools to destroy several walls since she decided that they needed a bit of color."
Duo snickered. "Sounds like we are on the right track." He tapped his chin in thought as he looked down the closest aisle. "What do you think about giving her something artistic that doesn't leave too much permanent damage? " He asked with a bright grin.
"Okay." Wufei said, feeling a bit dazzled, like he always did when Duo smiled like that.
Duo lead him through the store while telling him about different kind of artistic sets while Wufei was trying not to make it obvious that he was more or less drooling over the store clerk's ass.
"Here, Play-doh." He presented, knocking his knuckled into a colorful box with a picture of several dough shapes in different colors. "There are a few different kinds depending what you want. Here's one with a space theme, one with a press and a rolling pin."
Wufei nodded. She probably would like the dough, plus that it wouldn't leave landscapes over the hallway wall. "It's not dangerous to eat, right? She got a little brother who has a habit of putting everything in his mouth."
"Nah, my little brother ate some last year and by the looks of it, he's still alive and well." Duo snickered. "But I don't think it tastes all that good." He turned to the shelf and got a middle sized box down. "I think this one fits most children. It comes with several animal shaped molds and special tools for the parents so that they can clean them afterwards."
Wufei laughed. "The best thing about buying toys for other's kids is that you don't have to suffer from them later."
"Totally, my mother still haven't forgiven me for buying my little brother a drum set." They exchanged amused grins until Wufei felt his ears start to heat up and he had to look over at the Play-doh again.
"No plans on getting kids on your own?" Duo asked as he played with the golden cross around his throat.
Wufei shook his head. "Nah, in a few years maybe."
"Have to find the right one and all that." Duo said, dropping the cross to twist the box in his hand around to look at the back.
Wufei turned his face away as he pretended the read off the box with the space theme. "Yeah, there is that." He mumbled halfheartedly. "You?"
"Kids? No, I'm with you. In a few years or something when you feel like you're adult enough to take care of yourself, then you can consider it."
Wufei imagined a kid running around in the mess of cables and computer parts that was his and Heero's home. "Yeah, when the apartment looks like an earth quake happened to it you really shouldn't bring any children along."
Duo laughed. "It might be a bad idea, yo-"
The loud, dramatic intro music from Heero's favorite video game suddenly cut him off as Wufei's phone went off. Heero almost never called since he had something close to a phobia towards phones so whenever Wufei heard that tune he knew that it was something important.
"Sorry." He mumbled, fishing his phone out. "What?"
"Are you done flirting with the toy guy soon because your sister just called to warn you that your mother is on her way here." Heero said grumpily.
"Shit."
"Yeah and I'm not up to socializing with her."
"She's not that bad." Wufei said weakly.
"She treats me like I'm ten."
"Everyone is ten in her eyes."
"That does not excuse it." Heero muttered angrily.
"I'll be home soon, just try to fix the up the apartment a bit so it doesn't look like too much of a dump."
Heero just grunted and hung up.
Wufei turned back to Duo. "Sorry, I have to get going. My mother is coming for a surprise visit."
"Of course." Duo said with a lot less enthusiasm then before and pushed the box back in its place.
Wufei took a step closer and reached past him, taking the opportunity to take a sniff of the undeniable masculine smell of the other man as he picked up the Play-doh set. "This will probably be appreciated."
Duo gave him a twisted smile. "Great, come on, let's ring it in so that you can run off to fix up the apartment."
"I don't think it would make much difference since my mother is a bit of a snob and thinks that the apartment is a dump no matter what we do." He said, following Duo back towards the register. "The lack of females living in it also contributes to her obsession with showing up to make sure that we aren't swimming in dirty laundry." He waited until Duo had registered his present before pulling his credit card through the scanner, happy that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth so he could buy toys without worrying about not being able to pay the rent.
Duo laughed as he lifted the box into a red plastic bag and pushed it over the counter. "Good luck then, I think you're going to need it." Duo said with a grin that made Wufei's inside swell like a balloon.
"Thanks." He said, smiling back with as much happiness as he dared to show. "I'll just have to come back later for the rest of the kids' presents."
Duo smiled happily. "Always nice to see you sir."
The "sir" made the swelling balloon inside of him pop and Wufei stumbled numbly out from the store, swearing that this was the last time he was going to torture himself like this.
He was just going to have to find another solution to his problem
Barely twenty minutes after Wufei had gotten home, there was a distinct knocked on the front door.
Wufei signaled to Heero to open it while he spent the last seconds kicking video games in under the couch and stuffing yet another bundle of cables into a closet.
"Hi Mom." He said casually as he pushed the closet door closed with his back, praying that old circuit cards, cables and other stray computer parts wouldn't start falling out like an avalanche when he stepped away from it.
"I brought some food." She said, walking past him with two shopping bags filled with groceries.
'Help' He mouthed desperately to his friend, but Heero just shook his head and escaped into his room, closing the door behind him.
His mother gave the closed door a suspicious look. "Really, that boy needs to get himself a girl and settle down. His mother is worried that he's going to ruin his future. What is it that he's trying to do for a living?"
Wufei had already had this discussion with both his parents and Heero's parents. Lately he was starting to feel like Heero's spokesperson when the damned man was so antisocial that he wouldn't even explain himself to his parents. Okay, so Heero's parents were among the most overbearing people Wufei had ever met in his life, but still. "Heero has a lot of great ideas. He's internet company is going pretty good and they might get some big consumers from Germany that will boost their popularity. They are even thinking about employing more people."
His mother gave him no indication that she had heard him as she filled his refrigerator with fresh vegetables and several boxes of home cooked meals. Wufei wasn't bothered, it was just the way she was and he knew what she was going to say when she did decide to speak.
"And I'm still going to be a graphic designer." He continued before she could even open her mouth.
His mother sighed as she straightened back up and closed the refrigerator door. "Yes, that's all well and good but I don't understand why you can't work for the family business at the same time. We need nice homepages as much as everyone else." She said as she eyed the dirty dishes in the sink. "And it's not like graphic designers make that much money." She continued, giving the rest of their apartment a critical look.
Wufei sighed. His mother had a very different view of what a lot of money was. "I've told you, I want to work with something on my own without having countless of relatives hanging over my shoulder."
His mother laughed lightly. "You won't silly, everyone has their own office, and there is no need to hang over each other."
Wufei sighed and rubbed his brows. "That was not what I meant and you know it, please don't play the brainless female with me."
She sobered up and gave him a calm look. "I really wish you would reconsider."
The way she said it made it clear to Wufei that she wasn't simply speaking about his career.
He looked her straight in the eye. "I won't."
Wufei didn't keep the promise to stay away from the store and just two days later, Wufei was once again following Duo around like a puppy among the shelves.
His problems were piling up but in those short moments with Duo he was happy.
Time was running out and Wufei now had barely a week to find himself a boyfriend to bring along to the Christmas party.
He searched through several stores, looking for someone who fitted the description he had given his parents.
He had even managed to ask a couple of them to pretend to be his boyfriend. Most had laughed, thinking that he was joking, others had taken it as a bad come on and one guy had gone into a heterosexual rant that made his parents seem ready to join a gay support group.
Wufei had given up pretty quickly after that.
His problem just needed a different solution, that was all.
His solution? Buy more toys.
"I know just the thing." Duo said happily before almost bouncing away between the shelves. Wufei quickened his steps to keep up with him.
"This is one of the most popular toys right now, Gundam Wing fighters." Duo pointed at the long line of plastic covered robots. "They were really popular when I was a kid but they recently did a new TV series on it so they had a bit of a revival." He said happily. "This is my favorite, Deathscythe." He lifted one of the boxes down, showing of the dark robot in it. "The scythe glows when you press a button in the back and it has several sound effects, guaranteed to drive any parent insane."
Wufei laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like something that he would like." And something that his sister was going to hate. It was a win-win situation. "So what's with the robots?"
"They are not robots, they're gundams." Duo corrected seriously.
"…Right. And what's a gundam?"
"It's… like a big weapon that you fly around in."
Wufei nodded. He did not particularly care but Duo obviously liked them and since he enjoyed listening to Duo talk he played along. "Cool, so what's the story about them?"
Duo smiled like Wufei had offered him the moon. "Well, basically, it's about a couple of kids in Gundam fighters -these things."He said, wiggling the box with the dark gundam. "They are each from different parts of the world… except Africa for some reason and they fight together to free people from the bad guys."
Wufei nodded to show that he was following.
"Deathschythe is from America, Sandrock, who was my friend Q's favorite, is from some Arabic country, it's never really specified. Wing is from Japan, Heavyarms is from… well, he was a bit of a mystery, but I think he was meant to be from France or something."Duo gave the box a thoughtful look before turning to the next. "And then there is Shenlong who's from China."
Wufei perked up, looking at the intimidating plastic shape. "I think I'll take that last one."
"Awww, not Deathschythe?" Duo asked with a pout, hugging the box to his chest.
"Maybe next time." He personally thought that the Chinese one was a lot cooler looking.
"Don't be sad Scythe, he just don't understand your greatness." Duo comforted the box, cradling it softly.
Wufei couldn't help but snicker at the ridicules sight. "I'm sure that someone who knows his true value will come along soon enough."
"Well, since I've got twenty-seven different versions of him at home, I guess I'm that person."
"Seems like it." He said, envying the box as Duo showered it with butterfly kisses before carefully putting it back on the shelf.
Ten minutes later, Wufei left the store with yet another Christmas present but no solution to his problem.
The Christmas party was now two days away and Wufei was having a full out panic attack. "I'm fucked, I'm fucked, I'm fucked, I'm fucked!" He chanted as he paced back and forth across the room, fingers gripping his own hair in desperation.
Heero paid him no mind as he calmly walked out from his room and sat down on the couch with his laptop.
"I don't know what to do!" Wufei exclaimed as he sank down on the floor in front of the coffee table and proceeded to repeatedly thump his head against the hard surface.
Heero gave him a smug smile from the other side of the table. "I'm going to give you an early Christmas present." He said, turning his laptop around towards him.
For a second, Wufei didn't know what he was looking at, then he recognized the logo at the top of the page as the local gay dating site. "What?"
Heero sighed like simply being in Wufei's presence was killing him slowly. He tapped sharply against the profile that took up the screen, giving him an impatient look. Wufei leaned closer, looking at the user picture of a Teddy bear with a scythe and the strange username. Why someone would name themselves TheGodOfDeath_02 was for him mystery. The profile was nothing remarkable. Gender: Male. Orientation : Gay. Relationship: Single. Interests:, Play indoor bandy, collect classic toys, watch horror movies, read mystery novels-
Wufei sighed and looked up from the screen. "I really don't have time for internet dating you know."
"Keep reading." Heero ordered him with a self-satisfied smile.
Wufei rolled his eyes and scrolled the page downwards.
-try new food, play with my little brother, flirt with my favorite costumer, take long walk (but not on the beach) and paint.
"There better be a point to this Yuy." Wufei grumbled, rubbing his eyes. The red typing on a black background was giving him a headache.
"Oh there is and you are going to love me for it." Heero said smugly. "I just want you to remember this the next time you think I'm spending too much time in front of my computer."
Wufei rolled his eyes and kept reading.
Family: Mother, father, two brothers. Pets: None. Wufei scrolled down another couple of pointless facts. He never understood the point of internet dating. How could you fall in love with someone who could just as well be lying about everything he said? Heero better have a point to this or he was going to accuse him of cruising for guys and perhaps take the time to figure out the password for his friend computer so that he could put gay porn images on his screen saver. Not knowing what he was looking for, Wufei kept reading.
Occupation: Store clerk. Looking for: Serious relationship.
He sighed impatiently and glanced up at his friend who pointed back to the screen with a "Keep reading."
He reached the bottom of the profile and started to browse through the comments that GodOfDeath_02 had received. Most of them were just junk. Automatic invitations to parties, sleazy come ons and advertisers, none of them had been answered. Therefore his eyes instantly zoomed in on the first one that had been.
Sandrock: Hey Duo, could you bring your spare bandy stick to the next game, the dog just ate mine.
GodOfDeath_02: LOL! Sure thing Q, tell clown boy took keep better track of his beasts from me.
Wufei looked up at his smirking friend with wide eyes. "No way." He whispered weakly.
Heero just put his hands behind his head and leaned back with a superior look. "Who's number one?"
Wufei didn't respond, he was far too busy scrolling the page back up. Gender: Male. Orientation : Gay. Relationship: Single.
Wufei wordlessly raised his fist in victory, earning himself an amused chuckle before turning back to the screen.
-flirt with my favorite costumer
Wufei was almost vibrating out of his skin at this point and the- Looking for: Serious relationship -was only making it so much sweeter.
"I've got to go." He shouted over his shoulder as he jumped to his feet and sprinted towards the door.
There was still a chance that there were another Duo somewhere out there who worked in a store, collected toys and had a friend called Q, but Wufei wouldn't bet any money on it.
He realized too late that he was only wearing his slippers and that it had snowed quite a bit during the night. Never mind, there was no way that he was wasting another second on something as pointless as shoes… or clothes that he hadn't slept in. Slipping and sliding he managed to make his was across the street. He got a few strange looks from people walking by but he paid them no mind as he hurried towards his destination.
The store doors opened before him and his eyes instantly zoomed in on the lean figure in a Santa hat standing over by the Pink wall of Barbie doll packages.
But of course someone had to have gotten to Duo before him and the beautiful man attention was thereby focused on an old woman who was carefully examining box after box with identical blond dolls.
Wufei twitched in annoyance as his attach was interrupted and he came sliding to a stop at the end of the aisle. But he did get a happy smile and a discreet wave from Duo before he turned his eyes back to his costumer. Wufei restlessly shifted his weight from one wet foot to the other, crossing his bare arms as he tried not to stare outright at the man.
There was still a small chance that Duo had another favorite costumer but he was feeling far too self-confident at the moment to even consider it.
The woman finally settled for a Veterinarian Barbie and Wufei almost cheered out loud.
Duo gave him an amused one over as he passed him, making Wufei blush. Maybe he should at least have taken the time to put on a pair of socks.
The old woman slowly started lifting bills and coins out of her small purse, carefully counting as she did so. Wufei was ready to scream in frustration when she finally was done and got her plastic bag.
Duo said good bye to the old woman and turned towards Wufei with a smile. "Hi-"
Wufei cut him off. "Would you go on a date with me?"
Duo blinked in surprise. "Now?"
Wufei stared back, feeling as surprised as Duo as he leaned heavily against the counter. "Uhh, well, no or yeah, if you got the time." His head was spinning as he watched Duo watch him.
"Um, you did break up with your boyfriend first right?" Duo asked fingering a pile of collectors cards on the counter.
Wufei started in confusion. "Boyfriend?"
"Yeah, I'm not really up for any 'behind closed doors' deals."
"No, of course not." Wufei assured him quickly, if slightly frantic. "There is no boyfriend, non at all if you don't count the guy I had a crush on and who's hand I got to hold in third grade because that would be as far as… I'm going to stop talking now." He finished lamely, feeling like the biggest loser alive.
Duo crossed his arms as he gave him a long look. "Thank you, that was all I needed to know. Then the answer is no, because I don't date liars." He said coldly before giving him a smile so fake that it hurt to look at. "Thank you for shopping at WonderWorld, please never set your foot here again, have a nice day." With that he took a step back and marched towards the employee's area.
For a second, Wufei could only stare after him, horribly confused over what had just happened. Then he finally managed to rip himself out of his paralyzed state and ran after the other man, barely managing to catch up to him before he reached the door.
"Waitwaitwait." He pleaded, getting a hold of Duo's red shirt. "I didn't lie."
All that earned him was a glare as Duo ripped his arm out of his grip. "And I know for a fact that you did." He responded in a low, tight voice.
"I didn't."
Duo smiled coldly. "Did you know that if you stand outside the doors of this store, every word you say can be heard in our lunch room?"He crossed his armed as he stared down his nose at him. "So if someone say, spoke very loudly in his cellphone about not bringing his boyfriend to his cousins wedding right before entering the store, that can be heard by the people in that room."
"Oh." Wufei choked out.
Duo laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, oh. So that would be why you should take your Christmas shopping a-"
"There never was a boyfriend." Wufei blurted out. "I lied, but not to you."
Duo's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Explanation please."
Wufei wriggled his hands awkwardly. "Oh god, this is going to sound so crazy."
"I prefer crazy to liars, so do tell."
Wufei squirmed, looking up and down the aisle.
"Well?"
"It's just that I was… God, I don't even know where to start." He sighed deeply, looking down at his fisted hands. "I kind of needed a boyfriend and since I didn't have one… I kind of made one up."
Duo stared. "You… made one up."
"Yes, it wasn't supposed to be a big deal, I just wanted to get my parents off my back about getting a girlfriend and point out that I was gay so I told them that I had gotten myself a boyfriend and all of a sudden they start going on and on about everything from sexually transitive deceases to how gay people can't be faithful and then I couldn't just dump him and then they wanted to know everything about him and I ju-"
"Whoo, whoo, slow down. Okay, I think I get it." Duo said, holding his palms up like if trying to calm down a wild animal.
"I- I'm sorry, I didn't want to go all…" He trailed off with a helpless gesture, feeling like even more of a loser then before.
Duo did look more sympatric and less likely to rip his spine out as he put a hand on his shoulder and led him towards the door behind him. "Come on, let's go sit down and we can talk this out."
Duo opened the door to a small but cozy lunch room. A girl with short shaggy hair, who Wufei recognized to be the girl who usually worked in the register, looked up from her crossword puzzle.
"Hilde, do me a favor would you and take the register, we need a moment."
The girl's lips twitched but she nodded and left without a word.
"That was Hilde?" Wufei asked before he could stop himself. In the rollercoaster that had followed Heero's findings he had totally forgotten about his earlier "evidence."
Duo went over to the sink and poured a glass of water.
"Yeah, you know her?"
"No, just heard her be mentioned once." He mumbled stupidly as he sank down on the chair she had occupied earlier.
Duo snorted. "That's not that strange considering she and her husband own this place." He said and put the glass down in front of Wufei. Pulling a chair out on the other side of the table, Duo sat down and looked him right in the eye. "So, the whole story please."
Wufei slowly started to tell him about his parents and how they just wouldn't let go of the hope that he would grow out of his homosexuality and follow the path that they wanted him to go. He went on to explain how he made up a boyfriend so that they would understand that he was not going to change and how they, and the rest of the family now expected him to bring said boyfriend to their business party, nothing else was an option since everyone was going to be there. Nothing less than death ever made invited guests not show up.
Duo leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "So now you need a boyfriend to take along to this Christmas party that your family has every year and you need him to fit into the story you gave your parents and that's why you came to me, because I fit the description."
Wufei was nodding before he realized what had just been said and that Duo looked far from happy. "No! Not like that, the other way around."He desperately tried to explain "You didn't fit the description, the description fitted you."
"And the difference is… what?"
Wufei just knew that this part was going to be the most embarrassing part of the whole confession. "It's just that I kind of only made up the boyfriend part of the actual boy." He mumbled, looking down at the water glass in his hands. "The thing about fake boyfriends is that you can have who every you want and I kind of-" he squirmed, raising his glass to his lips to mumbled the last part into it. "-made you into my boyfriend." The worlds were low and almost drowned in the intense water sipping that followed but Duo had apparently no problem understanding every word.
"You made me your boyfriend?"
Wufei wanted to sink down under the table and never been heard from again. "Yes?"
"I don't know if that's disturbing or cute."
Wufei was holding his thumps that it would end up more on the side of cute then disturbing and slightly stalker-ish.
Duo sighed and leaned forward with his forearms on the table. "So how long have we been dating?"
"Um, about a year now." He said weakly.
"A year? Wow, I hope you're not expecting anything special for our anniversary."
Not knowing what to say, Wufei awkwardly played with his glass.
"This is kind of a mess." Duo finally said after a torturously long silence.
"Sorry." Wufei mumbled in embarrassment, ducking his head.
"Well I demand that we go on a date first, if that works out then we'll see about the Christmas party. Okay?"
Wufei looked up with wide eyes, hardly daring to believe what the other man had just said. "Okay. When?"
"When's the party?"
Wufei shrunk again. "Um, the day after tomorrow."
"Right, my shift ends in two hours, come over after that and we'll have dinner."
"That would be great." Wufei breathed happily.
Duo smiled lightly. "Then it's just one thing left."
"What?"
"I still don't know your name."
Wufei blushed, mentally kicking himself. "Right sorry." He got up and held his hand out to the other man who got to his feet to grasp it. "Wufei Chang."
"Nice to meet you Wufei, I'm Duo Maxwell."
Wufei forced himself to let go of the hand in his. "Maxwell? Like the Web design company?" How fitting that the man he had been chasing for so long to have the name of the company who had refused him a intern spot for years now.
Duo grinned proudly. "Yeah, my brother is running it."
Wufei stopped short. "Solo Maxwell is your brother?"
"Yeah, you know him?"
"We've met." Wufei bit back a sigh. Solo Maxwell didn't like him all that much and had totally chewed him out during a lecture he had held at the university about customizing WebPages for larger companies when Wufei had disagreed with him. Since then, the other man had enjoyed making things difficult for him. Great, his family was going to hate Duo and parts of Duo's family already hated him. Just what he needed, more problems.
"Cool, small world." Duo laughed. "Well, I have to get back to work so I'll see you in two hours."
"Yeah." Wufei smiled awkwardly. "I'm looking forward to it."
Duo smiled back and together they left the lunch room and walk through the store towards the exit.
Duo took his place behind the register, earning himself a amused snort from Hilde when he stumbled over a box on the floor when he wouldn't take his eyes of Wufei who was reluctantly walking towards the doors. "Hey Wufei." He called out after him as he leaned out over the counter.
"Yeah?"
"Go put some socks on, for God's sake."
A/N. Ah, that was all for now. Please take a second to tell me what you thought about this. It would make me very, very happy if you did.
Kidishcaresh, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas present, even if it's a bit late :D
A HUGE thank you to Julie who conquered my curse and beta read this so fast it just about brought tears to my eyes. (I'm serious, I could feel my eyes blurring when I checked my email this morning and saw her name.)
In the next and final chapter, the boys go on a date and Duo gets to meet the parents.