Disclaimer: Not mine T_T
Rating: K (atm but it will change as the story goes deeper)
Pairings: 6x2(main pairing), 4xH, others undecided as of yet (v.o)
Summary: Duo is the Joker according to everybody's believe, Zechs sees beyond that facade, but knows that they both have secrets that are not easily told. Because nothing is what it seems… warnings: unintended oc, probably, maybe.
Authors note: Okay this story developed after I ran out of good Yaoi Manga to read and after I ran out of good 6x2, because after I read them a few times I know them by heart. And also I blame all the songs that have the word "Don't" in the title in my music collection, they have guided me through this first chapter making me almost unable to stop the chapter T_T. Okay one last thing before I let you read the story, please don't forget to read the Authors notes after the chapter especially when you are a writer yourself (v.o).
Talking: "Blablabla"
Thinking: 'Blablabla'
Nothing is what it seems - Chapter 1
Everybody always is under the impression that I am the party guy and that I don't do anything else than to crack jokes. People don't get me at all, but still I'm wondering why I'm in a situation like this at this very moment. Well let me explain my situation, uhm where to begin.
I'm at a gõkon at this very moment, my best friend is next to me and there's Shane a mutual friend of ours. Do you actually know what a gõkon is? Well to put it simple, it's a group date. So we are at this gõkon together, the girls are nice enough, in all honestly I'm gay anyway so I have no interest in them. But I made one joke and now those girls are expecting that every line that comes out of my mouth, okay truth be told I told a few jokes. I may run and hide but I never tell a lie. But that the girls are expecting me to make jokes isn't the thing that is unnerving, it's unnerving because my best buddy is glaring at me, he knows I'm gay by the way. He likes the middle girl who is paying more attention to me than to him and I can tell he is pissed. Off all the luck in the world I have to have her fawning over me. Heero can have her, Relena Peacecraft, her name alone makes me wanna hurl. Why do you ask? Well that's a very good question, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just don't like her and I think she's faking her interest in me to make Heero jealous. Which is obviously working.
If I can make it I'll escape in a few, I still have an assignment to finish. Who would have thought university was this hard. I do know I will like my assignments, those will be much more interesting then this bunch. Oh why can't I just say no to Heero, oh I know already it's because he's my best friend. But I thought friends knew each other, then he would have known I hate gõkons. Stop glaring you idiot she's all yours. Normal people would jump in the air because of such a glare, but I've been too much on the receiving end of his glares to be affected by them, the idiot. Well I, Duo Maxwell, am an idiot for agreeing to this stupid thing in the first place.
"Sorry guys I have to go." Duo got up from his chair.
"Aww Duo you really have to go?" Relena smiles.
"Yeah I'm sorry Princess, I've have a date with my book." Duo winks at the girls and they all laugh. Relena turns red at the Princess name, her father and brother always called her that.
"Funny joke Duo." Says one of the girls, then the other asks, "So what are you going to do?"
'It wasn't a joke idiot, hm well that's only to be expected.' "S-E-C-R-E-T and I can't let you keep the funny Duo all to yourselves." Duo winks and leaves it at that.
"Aww tell us Duo." Squeals one of the girls.
" Bye Ladies, see ya." With that Duo walks of.
'So finally I'm free, in about ten minutes I can fully concentrate on my literature assignment. Yeah what a joke right? The Joker studying literature, well I like reading and everything that has to do with it, but I think it's one of the best kept secrets in the world. Normal people assume I can't sit still or stay silent long enough to read anything. Almost home.' Duo lived in a two room apartment, he assumed the other apartments in his building were bigger since most of them had been remodeled about a year back. Lucky that Duo was on good terms with the landlord who had let him keep his two room apartment. Well in this city it was hard to find something this cheap anyway, so Duo was quite happy with his apartment.
"Ah it's good to be home." Duo said as he kicked off his shoes. Duo get's a book from the kitchen sink and walks through the kitchen to his living room, well his apartment actually if you looked at it right, had three rooms entrance was in the kitchen, which was an open kitchen and then the living room, where he also mostly did his eating and then in the back his bedroom with balcony. He flopped himself on the couch and started reading.
"Now comes the good part." Told Duo himself as he flipped a page.
"Aww Zechs don't be like this, we can talk about it." Suddenly a female voice sounded pretty hard from outside.
"Please believe me, it didn't meant anything." Duo sighed, he had never seen his neighbor before but this wasn't a good first impression.
"Come on let me in. ZECHS!" Duo had it for today with the women specie. He put his book down and walked to the door.
"ZECHS I'm the best thing you ever had, let me in don't be so stubborn." The woman yelled as Duo opened the front door.
"I doubt you are the best he's had." Snorted Duo as he looked at the woman who was yelling, "Would you please refrain from yelling at this time of the evening, there are more people here in the building if you hadn't noticed." With that Duo closed the door again. The woman outside let a last sound of frustration escape from her mouth and then she stomped away.
"Good now I can get some reading done." He said to himself as she walked back to the living room, just as he picked up his book the door bell rang. "What is it this time, oh god you must not want me to complete this assignment." Duo sighed in desperation.
"Yeah, who is it?" said Duo as he walked to the front door.
"Zechs Merquise, your neighbor." The voice said, Duo thought the voice had a pleasant ring to it.
"Ah k, on my way." Said Duo and he opened the door. "Howdy neighbor, what can I do for you?" Duo looked into the most blue eyes he had ever seen. 'OMG.' Duo mentally screamed, 'If Zeus had a son this would probably be closest to it.'
"Ah well, this is going to sound stupid, but thank you." The man said.
"No problem." Duo said, "I already was in a bad mood, but she was very helpful in removing my bad mood." Grinned Duo.
"That's good then I guess." The man smiled slightly.
'Jesus, this guy must have lots and lots of girlfriends.' Duo looked at the guy from top to toe. Duo didn't even know where to start if he ever had to describe his neighbor. Duo estimated his height to be around 185 centimeters, and he was pretty accurate at it too. Duo himself wasn't that big, he barely reached 170 centimeters.
"You want something to drink?" asked Duo out of nothing.
Zechs seemed to think about it for a moment, but seemed no reason to say no. "Weren't you busy with something." He asked pointing at the book in Duo's hand.
"Yeah, but it's okay I'll survive, lemme introduce myself, Duo Maxwell." Said Duo as he put out his hand.
"Zechs Merquise, and yes I would like something to drink." He said has he shook Duo's hand.
"Good come in then." Duo grinned as he led the way. "Oh would you mind taking of your shoes?"
"You don't look Japanese." Said Zechs as he pulled off his shoes.
"I'm not, but my best friend is and well I like my floor clean, now I don't have to vacuum as much ya know." Duo grinned as he opened the fridge and got out two cans of beer. Zechs nodded understandingly, he himself hated house chores.
"Here catch." Said Duo as he softly threw the beer to Zechs. "I assume you drink beer?"
"Yeah, this is probably just what I needed." Said Zechs more to himself than to Duo.
They both sat down in the living room. Duo on the couch and Zechs sat down on the same style arm chair. Zechs looked around in the living room, it was smaller than his own apartment. His eyes stopped at a small table next to the couch that had a small pile of books on it.
"Have you read those?" Zechs found himself asking.
"Yeah, they were pretty okay." Duo said as he looked at the pile of books. "You read?"
"Yeah sort of." Zechs answered.
"You wanna borrow them?" Duo asked as Zechs his eyes stayed on the pile of books.
"Oh no thank you, I barely have time to read." Zechs said as he pulled his eyes from the books. "I have read one of those books."
"oh which one?" Duo asked enthusiastically.
"The one by Milliardo, what did you think of it?" Zechs asked as he looked at Duo.
"Well he's okay, although lately he has been writing more romance, but it's more portrayed as lust in my eyes then love. Not that it isn't good reading material, but shouldn't love be more about respect, affection, compassion, kindness and wanting to connect with the other person. Instead I feel the main character feels more lust for his girlfriend then it is love, but well it's only the first book of a series, so everything can still change and suddenly feel right." Duo explained, "Oops I'm sorry, when you start about books I really can't shut up."
"No I don't mind, it was actually very refreshing. I never looked at it quite that way." Said Zechs, his words were truly genuine.
"So what do you do actually?" asked Duo.
"I'm finishing my major in Psychology." Said Zechs as he smiled at Duo's startled expression, "Don't worry, people always tend to think we analyze people right away when we meet them."
"I'm sorry, I must have looked lame, right?" said Duo apologetically.
"It's okay, I get it all the time. We are pretty much like normal people." Zechs laughed.
"That's good then, I wouldn't let a abnormal person in my house." Grinned Maxwell, he had to admit that he felt uncomfortable for a moment there, but Zechs had been pretty good about it. "So psychology major right? So that must make you about 24?"
"You are good at guessing." Said Zechs while he drank some beer, "and what do you do?
"Ï'm studying literature." Duo grinned.
"Oh."
"Yeah I know it's not really something that fits me, but I like it." It's what everybody else thinks.
"No that wasn't what I wanted to say, although your appearance does not fit the study, but nothing is really what it seems right?" smiled Zechs.
"Exactly." Grinned Duo.
Duo and Zechs talked quite long about a lot of different subjects. The learned easily that they were very different, but still could easily converse with each other. A few hours had passed before Zechs went back to his apartment.
"Well Zechs if you ever want to have a drink you can stop by anytime you want, if I'm home that is." They both laughed.
"Sure Duo, and if anything you can stop by at my place." Zechs winked at Duo but didn't see Duo turn red because of it since he already had walked out of the door. Duo closed the door and mentally slapped himself, 'What was that?' Duo shrugged it off as he walked back to the living room. For a moment Duo eyed his book, 'Sorry friend, you have to wait till after classes tomorrow.' Duo went to his bedroom and chuckled as he entered, 'Zechs would have thought I was crazy if he had seen this. Duo's bedroom had most of his books. Every wall was a bookcase from the floor till the ceiling. Duo had stopped counting his books a long time ago and still a lot of his books were in the storage of the ground floor. In the middle of the room was his double bed, his bed was a bit higher than you would see normally, but Duo had learned at young age how to use the room he had, and under his bed was his closet, he kept all his clothes there. But for now it was time to sleep, Duo felt he was tired big time and he had early classes. He was sure his alarm clock wouldn't like him in the morning so he gave his alarm clock an early glare.
XxX
"Duo." Duo looked behind him as he heard someone say his name.
"Hey Heero, how was class?" Heero shrugged, "It was okay." Heero was a scholarship student, because of his exceptional skills in basketball. Duo didn't doubt that he would probably become a NBA player.
"How was your class?" Heero asked.
"It was good, we discussed Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. it was quite interesting." Said Duo.
Heero chuckled, "What is it Heero?"
"Nothing, but if others would hear you talk like that they would be surprised. But well why did you disappear last night?" Heero asked.
"I was bored and you know I don't like those things." Duo shrugged.
"Ah."
"And well I didn't think you would mind me leaving anyway." Duo grinned.
"True, but still you didn't have to leave on my account." Said Heero as he walked beside Duo.
"Don't worry about it, and well me leaving did give me something good." Said Duo grinning like a Cheshire cat.
'Something good, what that about?' just when Heero was about to asked they heard someone call them out.
"Hey Quatre, how was economics?" the man was panting from running, the man was blond, but Duo noticed not as blond as Zechs. And he was not even nearly as tall as Zechs.
"Economics was good, but the assistant professor was helping today again, he seriously gives me the creeps." Said Quatre as he shuddered.
"Treize again?" asked Duo.
"Yeah, his looks are intense, those are making chills run up and down my spine."
"How do you mean intense?" wondered Heero.
"Uhm how to explain." Quatre began. "Ever looked at something you wanted to devour completely?"
Heero looked as if he didn't even grasped it slightly.
"You can just better show him." Duo laughed at Quatre's embarrassed reaction at his comment.
"I can't do that." Said Quatre.
"Then I'll do it." Said Duo as he started staring at Heero, but soon his eyes became so intense as if he wanted to swallow Heero entirely. Heero felt a blush creep up to his face.
"You get it now?" Duo grinned again.
"Yes, I understand why that would make you uncomfortable Quatre." Said Heero still feeling the warmth of the blush that slowly disappeared from his face. Heero skills in basketball could equal his nonexistent social skills, till about a few months ago Heero was obsessed only with basketball. But he guessed that Relena had something to do with the fact that Heero had became more socially towards others beside him and Quatre, he wasn't even that socially towards his teammates, and even they noticed a real change in Heero.
"So what are you going to do today Duo?" asked Quatre.
"I have my part-time job, those glasses aren't going to fill themselves." Said Duo laughing.
"Ah yes, and you Heero?" Quatre eyed Heero who seemed lost in his thoughts. When Heero didn't react Quatre called out his name again.
"Hn."
"I asked what you were going to do today?"
"I have practice." Said Heero and he dashed away.
"Okay that was strange." Said Quatre as he watched Heero go, Duo nodded in agreement.
"Well I'll round up Hilde and we will stop by at the café." Quatre said. Quatre had been together with Hilde now for a few years, Duo liked Hilde, she was nice unlike some other women he knew. Although in truth, Quatre and Hilde were an odd couple, but they both loved Duo to pieces and knew about his fascination with books. Both Hilde and Quatre thought that his fascination with books had something to do with his childhood where Duo only seldom spoke about.
"k, then I'm off, see ya later." Said Duo as he walked off.
XxX
"Duo, two coffee for table two."
"Sure thing boss." Said Duo and got two cups of coffee and brought them to table two. "Is there anything else I can get you?" Duo got out his block note and wrote down the order.
"Duo could you do the new table." Asked the woman behind the counter.
"Sure Boss, could prepare this then." Duo said as he handed over the order.
"Good afternoon, what can I get you." Duo said as he pulled out his block note again.
"Duo?" Duo looked up and looked into two very blue eyes.
"Oh hiya Zechs." Smiled Duo.
"Aren't you Quatre's friend?" Duo pulled his eyes of Zechs to look at his companion.
"Oh you are Treize right." Said Duo as he smiled while Treize seemed to study him, Duo felt a little uncomfortable. "Quatre is right you do have an intense look as well as aura around you."
Treize seemed a bit startled by that revelation, while Zechs chuckled.
"Well what can I get you gentlemen?" Asked Duo as he winked at both.
"I would like a coffee, and could you recommend anything that isn't too sweet?" asked Zechs as he eyed the small menu.
"I would suggest the lemon cake, it's very good and not too sweet." Told Duo while he scribbled down one coffee and one lemon cake on his block note.
"Okay then I'll take that."
"I'll take a coffee, and nothing more." Said Treize.
"Okay two coffee and one lemon cake coming up." Said Duo as he walked away.
"Here's the two strawberry shortcakes and give me the next order." Said the female.
"Here it is." Said Duo as he handed over the order.
"Now don't dally to much around the tables of cute guys." Said the female with a chuckle.
"You know me, I just can't resist a cute face, just like yours Sally." He winked at her as Sally just shook her head.
"Duo is really one of a kind." She said to herself.
"Miss can I get a tea." Sally turned around to help another guest, "of course."
The café had been more busy as of late. Mostly students from university she guessed and probably a few that had attended the university when they were younger. She was actually a doctor, but had chosen to run the café after her husband had died a few years ago. She was thirty now and Duo had been working for her, and before for her husband, for almost 3 years. In truth he had worked there before that, but well for legal purposes they said he had been working there for 3 years and that wasn't really a lie, it's more like bending the truth. Sally knew somewhat of Duo's history, but she wasn't one to pry to deep. She wasn't even sure she could deal with his history, she had hardly dealt with her husband's death, much less deal with someone else's loss.
"Here is your order." Said Duo as he put Zechs and Treize their orders in front of them.
"Zechs told me you are a student from the literature department." Said Treize as he started small talk, well it wasn't really small talk if you had ulterior motives.
"Yes I am." Said Duo.
"I thought the name Maxwell sounded familiar, you have attended a few economics classes right?" asked Treize as he carefully watched Duo's reactions.
Duo laughed sheepishly, "Yes I wanted to grasp the economic aspects of a book better, so I asked the professor if I could attend a few classes."
"Ah that's why, well I heard you are at the top of your classes." Said Treize.
"Not sure if I'm at the top of my classes, since I don't really watch how others do it." Said Duo feeling a bit shy of the praise.
"Would you like to write for the school paper?" asked Treize.
"I..What!" Duo looked shocked.
"You don't have to answer right now, just stop by my office somewhere in this week." Said Treize smiling.
Zechs had watched the entire conversation with somewhat mixed feelings, he knew Treize long enough to know he wasn't going to let Duo say no. He felt some sympathy towards Duo who seemed to have become what Treize was most interested in at this moment.
"I will think about it, but now I must attend to our other guests, it was nice to meet you Treize, Zechs I will see you around." Duo stalked off towards a table where two people had just taken place. 'Me write in the school paper? I have never aspired to become a writer.' Duo knew somewhat about the rumors that surrounded Treize, Treize was said to be a playboy and well more things were said, but Duo knew better then to believe the rumors.
As the day continued Duo had been quite busy, even when Quatre and Hilde stopped by he had not much time to talk to them, thus in the end he couldn't even think much about Treize's proposition. And he didn't want to tell Quatre yet, because the boy was scared shitless when it concerned Treize. But he was sure even if he would forget Treize would find a way to corner him.
To be continued…
Authors note: This chapter has became way longer than I ever anticipated o.o And I have so much more in store for this story. This is my little baby, together with "Black death" another story of mine, but it's an gundam story with an Ooc as the main character so not sure if I will ever post it on here . If I don't post it here, you might be able to find it on my Livejournal someday. Also my other stories are progressing just nicely, I'm worried that everything is going too good and that I'll be brain-dead by the time I want to start the advent thing.
With my songfic compile I had the shock of my life since karina001 reviewed, I was like o.o OMG, I get reviewed by someone who's stories I read o,,o So...
Please review, flame or whatever you call it what you do (v.o)
Please visit my Livejournal sometime, just click on homepage on my profile, especially writers, since I've written a piece about writing and I am wondering how you do things when you write a fanfic.
Okay since my regular icons somehow don't work on fanfiction I changed them sligtly, I'll add more as I change more that I use:
Wink: (v.o)