E A.N. This is a multi-part fic that will have a sequel. Heero POV.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam…don't rub it in…
A Give From The HeartBy: MangoBango
I love to give Duo gifts.
It's become somewhat of a strange habit for me. Whenever I do a solo mission, or one without Duo, I always make the time to stop and pick something up for him. Needless to say it's never a lot but I try to get him sometimes besides soda and Doritos at least every other mission.
The tradition started a couple months ago when I was on a mission with Wufei. It was fairly simple, with low risk. Go in, get the necessary information and get out. The actual heist took about a tenth of the time it had to do all the drowning research concerning Dr. Laurence Lao and his new mobile suit plans. I personally thought it was a waste of time. Duo's really begun to rub off on me. I've picked up his 'anything can be done a lot easier and faster with explosives rather than research.' I honestly couldn't tell if that was good or bad but I was beginning to see the logic in it more and more everyday.
The mission was set in the USA. Oz, being the smart little fuck-bunnies they are, had kidnapped a scientist, threatening him with his family. It was a 'do our dirty work or watch all your daughters fingers get cut off' type of thing. Needless to say, he begun to help them design the new suits, rumored to have been able to bring down a Gundam when sent in packs.
Luckily, the new plans never received the opportunity to try. Dr. Lao taught at St. Breginns' boarding school in an engineering class. Wufei and I enrolled ourselves and signed up for his class. It took a lot snoops around his office to find any remote information, but when we got what we needed the school was destroyed and there was no trace of the doctor of his plans left, except the copies we made for ourselves of course. Unfortunately, there were no signs of the students either.
St. Breginns' wasn't a very large school, carrying only about 200 students, but it was obvious why the mission was handed to Wufei and me. Duo and Quatre were rarely handed assignments where vast numbers of innocents got killed. There had been bad experiences with it in the past that no one wanted to repeat. When Gundam pilots freeze up on the job, what ever made them freeze must be taken care of. For Duo and Quatre that was the killing of innocents. Only myself, Wufei, and Trowa were given these missions except for once in a blue moon when they would require Duo's stealth.
After the mission, Wufei and I bunked down in at a broken down motel to get some rest. There was no need to stay in a hotel; we would only be there for the night, which meant anything with a bed would be sufficient to our needs.
It had been a restless sleep for me that night. The kind of sleep where you put your head down on the pillow and you're just gone, no dreams. The kind of night when you shut your eyes, only to have them open again in the morning when it seems you've only been asleep for 10 minutes. You know, a hellish sleep.
It left me feeling somewhat groggy and I hated that. It rarely ever happens to me but sometimes after a mission such as the one we'd been on, I sleep in that fashion.
I dragged my groggy self and duffle down to the little office to check out with Wufei. They had a little convenient store adjacent to it. The cash register was surprisingly enough the front desk as well.
And that's where it all started.
While Wufei went to the make shift 'front desk' to check us out of the motel, I found myself wandering through the convenient store. I wasn't really looking for anything, but that's when I saw it. The wretched thing that started this whole mess, sitting innocently right next to the beef jerky.
There was this stand of novelty T-Shirts ranging from 'dead man walking' to 'naughty girl.' I smiled to myself. Both shirts seemed so fitting for Duo, minus the girl part of course. However neither of those caught my eye. It was the one that said 'I was bound and left for dead in Mexico, and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt.'(1)
Duo had loved it. We were still in our 'friends who stare when they think the other's not looking' phase, so I was rather shocked to find myself with an armload of Duo after plopping the thing down on his bed.
I guess I can't really call it a stupid tradition. That tradition, after all, gave me my first semi-sexual experience with Duo.
Some people may not think having a teenaged drama king lung at you at full blast and then kissing you a sexual experience, but it was the best I could do at the time so if you're one of those people…just shut the fuck up.
He laid in my arms all night. A huge accomplishment for me, seeing as how I'd been lusting after him the moment he shot me. It's funny, even at that moment, when I was in unspeakable pain from the newly acquired bullets; I knew he was the one. You don't shoot Heero Yuy and live. But somehow, Duo did.
I remember him smiling, drawing lazy circles on my chest that night. I was on my back and he was curled up against my side resting his head on my chest while I stroked his hair. We just laid there in silence for a while. What one was supposed to say in such a situation I'll never know.
"Do you ever miss your family?" I stopped my hands movement for a moment to think about what I'd just been asked.
"I never had a family. So how can I miss it?" He cringed. I will forever hate my voice. It's true that it had gotten better over the time I'd been with Duo, but that first night it was still so cold. And I honestly didn't mean for it to come out that harsh.
"I remember…Father Maxwell telling me that everyone gets forgiven." I watched a little smirk tug at the corners of his mouth before he continued. "Every Sunday we'd have people come in to confession. And when they first go in to the booth, they always say 'forgive me father, for I have sinned.'" He smiled at my confused expression and poked me in the ribs. "Those are the seven words of I did something really bad."
"Hn…"
"Anyway… So one Sunday, right after confession when everyone was leaving I decided to try it out. I'd gotten into this fight…and beat the ever loving crap out of this kid. I knew Sister Helen was gonna be on my ass when she found out about it so I thought that if I confessed she'd leave me alone." Duo paused and looked up at me with a kind of smug look. "You should have seen the look on Father Maxwell's face when I went into that booth and said; "Father…I've really done it this time."
I'll always remember that night. It was the night when I learned my first real fact about Duo Maxwell. And ever since then he's been sharing my bed.
After that started the gift tradition just kept going. It wouldn't matter what I gave him, he'd always come thank me in the exact same way. I'd see something of interest, put it on his bed, and wait. It would never take long before he'd find me. I'll never admit it out loud, but my favorite part of this whole agenda is the sight of Duo running full blast down the hallway towards me. And I must say, I love the flying jump that always landed Duo so sweetly on my chest.
I always found to odd that I had no objection to the kiss that followed the flying hunk of steel landing on me. At first I hadn't really responded but it didn't seem to phase Duo in the least bit…and after a while, I started to kiss back.
That leaves me in my current position. I am in love…with a flying monkey.
When I first realized this I actually got sick to my stomach and spent the remainder of the night giving homage to the porcelain thrown. The perfect solider was in love.
I wondered what J would do if he found out. Would he make me go back through retraining? Or just separate me from him, maybe even kill Duo to ensure the safety of my missions…But since when had my overall long term mission be 'Get Duo to fall in love with me. Note: Try not to use excessive force.'
The thought of losing Duo hurt me more and more thinking about it, and gave me more and more reasons why not to tell him. While I was scared of what Dr. J might do, I was never more scared of what Duo would do.
Dr. J would surely show some mercy. He couldn't, after all, have one of his best soldiers down in a War. Duo on the other hand draws the line of mercy somewhere between castration and gouging eyes out with forks.
Smiling at that thought, I contemplated when I had become so fond of the Duo's presence, only to be smacked in the head with a little pitchfork. There on my shoulder sat a little devil me going 'Maybe between all the 'Omae O' Korosu's and sticking your tongue down his throat!' I had to give it to the little guy. He did make a hell of a lot of sense…
So after that I tried to get Duo things that if he thought about could show how I felt for him. I stopped getting him T-shirts and started getting him Mountain Dew. I refrained from beef jerky and went for the Doritos. That type of thing. The kind of gifts that said 'yes you moron…these foods will make you die sooner and don't go well with our ration order but I'll get them for you just to see that smile…and to get that kiss…'
And the kisses did get better whenever I got him something of the nature but he just wasn't getting it. I'd have to go for the direct approach. I just wasn't sure what that was yet. I wasn't familiar with dating rituals, so I went to the only place I could turn. The dating anti-christ. I found him sitting at the kitchen table working on some sort of puzzle. A likely location.
"Quatre, I require speaking with you."
………………
End
A.N.
(1) Ah…the game….gotta love that movie.
All right, so I know again that it's not from the fics everyone wants updated…but at least it's something. And I know I shouldn't be starting another multi-parter but I need to spice it up. I've found a lot of fics that will be uploaded today so read and review!