Warnings: Language, violence, angst…major angst (probably a bit more than my usual. Okay, a LOT more than my usual), sex… yaoi sex, that is.
A/N: This fic evolved as a friendly challenge with Emilinia-sama. The original premise: Duo is an up and coming writer whose work is being used by a copy-cat serial killer; and on a MAYBE unrelated note he falls for a much younger Heero. She also suggested it be light and fluffy… but, well… yeah.
A/N #2: As always, a very special thanks to the fabulous Cuzosu!
A Very Dark Corner
Chapter Two
Duo had never been much of a drinker. Solo had favored wine, and Duo would often join him for a glass, but it wasn't until after Solo's death that Duo had started branching out to liquor. The sensation of waking up, hung over, depressed, and full of self-hatred was one that, while relatively new, Duo had come to know well in the past year.
Judging by the sun it seemed that he had slept until nearly noon, yet it was an effort to drag himself out of bed. He stumbled and staggered his way to the bathroom and by some miracle managed to shower. He drank a fair amount of the water that rained down on him, and after he brushed his teeth he felt almost human again.
Half a pot of black coffee and two pieces of toast later, he was human. Which in no way eliminated his depression and self-hatred.
He couldn't believe what he had done last night. Bad enough to boggle the date with Zechs – and in his mind, that act had been completely understandable and in fact necessary – but then he had gone and yelled at some innocent kid who had just wanted to make sure he got home safely.
Duo groaned. He was such an asshole. He remembered the look on the kid's face as he had stormed up the stairs. His blue eyes had been filled with concern, and the scowl on his face had spoken volumes.
The phone rang, startling Duo out of his reverie. It took him a while to find it, since he had apparently started to strip out of his clothes as soon as he came in the door last night, but he eventually found it under his couch.
"Yeah?" He answered, a little breathless from his search efforts.
"Duo."
He closed his eyes at the sound of Hilde's voice. He should have known she would call him to see how the date went, but he had hoped she could have waited until… never, to do so.
"Hey, Hilde," he said, forcing himself to sound bright.
"How did things go last night with Zechs?"
"Oh, you know…"
"No, I don't. That's why I'm calling. Talk to me!"
Duo scratched at his hair and tried to think of a polite way to tell her that setting him up with Zechs was the worst possible idea she could have ever had.
"Hilde, you didn't mention what Zechs looked like. Before I met him."
"I don't understand. He's blonde, has amazing blue eyes. He's your type. Did you not – are you trying to tell me you weren't attracted to him?"
"Hilde, my type? I don't – Hilde, I do not have a type. In all the time you've known me, I've been with one guy, ever."
"And Zechs looks like him."
"Yeah!" Duo agreed with a shout.
"Duo, how is that bad?"
"Hilde, he looks just like Solo. They have different noses, okay, and Zechs probably has ten or fifteen pounds on Solo, but they look the same. Christ, their hair is almost the exact same length! And how many men do you know who have long blonde hair?"
"So you weren't attracted to him," she concluded with a sigh.
"No, of course I was! But no, I wasn't. I was attracted to Solo and – Hilde, I cannot believe – he's like a fucking clone!"
"They don't look that– huh."
"What?" Duo asked her wearily.
"Sorry, I just pulled up a photo of you and Solo on my computer. You're right, actually, Zechs does look a lot like him. A lot a lot like him."
Duo closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Yes. I noticed."
"I guess I for –" she stopped herself.
"You forgot what Solo looked like," Duo filled in for her.
"No," she said immediately. "I just – Christ, I'm making a mess of this. Duo, I'm sorry. I did not mean to foist off a Solo clone on you. I thought that you would like him because he has similar features to Solo, but – damn, it really is uncanny. Even their eyebrows are -"
"Stop looking at the damn photo!" he barked at her.
"Sorry, sorry. I guess I wasn't thinking."
"It doesn't matter," Duo sighed. "It would have been a disaster anyway. I'm not ready to start dating again."
"So… what did happen?" she asked after a momentary hesitation.
"Oh, you know, I got pretty wasted before he showed up and then told him I'd prefer it if he didn't talk, at all, while we ate, and then – he fucking kissed me good night, Hilde! On my jaw! Just like Solo used to do! – I yelled at some kid and then passed out."
"Wait, wait, you yelled – he kissed you on that spot, below your ear?" Her voice went very soft.
"Yeah," he raggedly agreed.
"Oh, Duo. I didn't – even I can see how that's fucked up."
"Thanks." He sighed. "I just don't think it's going to happen, Hil. I'm not going to find someone who I want to be with and maybe – maybe that's okay. I've been fine on my own this past year."
"Fine? Duo, you're a hermit and the only social contact you have is with me, your therapist, and homeless people at the soup kitchen twice a week!"
"I work at the library too!" Duo protested.
"I said social contact. I don't care that you commune with the books on Sunday afternoons."
Duo started to speak, but she continued over him.
"You need human interaction. Maybe you're right, maybe you won't find an amazing love like Solo again anytime soon – but you WILL find someone that you want to share your life with. You're young, Duo! Twenty eight! You have so much life to live and you're so amazing. You have so much to give."
"Hilde –"
"So the next guy I set you up with will not be blonde and blue eyed. And I'll screen him to make sure he doesn't kiss you below your ear, okay?"
"I don't want to be set up with another guy."
"What about your homework assignment?"
"I went on the date, homework is done."
"Yeah, but – you know Wufei will just make you do it again."
"Maybe not for another few months," Duo argued, dreading the possibility of enduring another night like last night, ever again.
Hilde sighed.
"Duo, I'm sorry, I've got to run, but I love you."
"I love you too, Hil," he assured her, "and I know – I know you're just trying to help."
"I am," she assured him before hanging up.
After the phone call, Duo spent a fruitless afternoon staring at his computer monitor, willing himself to write something – anything – for his book. However, both his mind and the monitor stayed frustratingly blank.
Except, of course, for the lingering guilt over yelling at the bartender. The boy's wide, hurt eyes kept flashing through Duo's mind, and he realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere until he apologized to him.
He decided to go back to the restaurant, in a few hours, and make amends.
That course of action decided, he applied himself to cleaning his apartment, a chore he hadn't really done in at least a month, when Hilde had insisted on coming over to visit him.
By the time night fell, Duo had cleaned the apartment more thoroughly than he had since Solo's death, and looking around and seeing clean, dusted furniture and bookshelves filled him with a sense of accomplishment.
When he arrived at the restaurant it was still early in the evening, but a few couples were already dining, and a two men sat at the bar.
However, the bartender was not the young man of last night, but instead a blue eyed, blonde haired girl.
He ignored the sense of defeat he felt at her presence and forced himself to go to the bar anyway.
"Hey, I was looking for the kid, the bartender, who was here last night?"
The blue eyed girl regarded him with amusement.
"Heero?"
"Heero?" Duo repeated, testing the name. "Messy dark hair? blue eyes?"
She nodded.
"Heero Yuy," she said with a sigh. "Hottest guy around."
"Right… sure, I just, is he working tonight?"
She arched an eyebrow.
"I just, I was here last night and I forgot to tip him, and I just wanted to apologize and –"
"Oh, okay." She laughed lightly. "Hot guy like him, he picks up stalkers or whatever, so – but you're old, right?"
Duo had absolutely no idea where this conversation was going, but the longer he sat here and talked to the girl the more confused and reluctant he became.
"Right," he agreed again.
"He'll be on in… half an hour?"
"Great. I'll just, wait here, at the bar?" Duo sat down on one of the stools.
"Can I get you anything while you wait?" The girl asked him.
"Sure," he started to order a scotch and soda but stopped himself. Heero was already convinced that he was a worthless drunk, should he really have a drink in front of him while he apologized? "Actually, could I just get a glass of water?"
She arched an eyebrow.
"You can charge me for it – and I'll leave you a tip. I just… don't need a drink, you know?"
She rolled her eyes at him.
"Sure. Whatever." She filled a glass with ice and tap water before settling it in front of him.
"Thanks." He saluted her with the glass.
She shook her head, either in disgust or pity, and moved to the other side of the bar.
In truth, Duo was grateful that the girl wasn't impressed with him – he felt the same about her.
He also felt, on the whole, completely ridiculous. He was ashamed of the way he had acted last night, embarrassed by how drunk he had been, and deeply regretful that he had spurned Heero's kind gesture and his sympathy. If that was how Duo treated complete strangers, how the hell was he ever going to go on a date, with anyone, ever again.
He was well on his way to working himself into sullen depression by the time Heero showed up.
The blue eyed man was dressed in fitted jeans, a tight, graphic t-shirt, battered sneakers, and had a backpack slung over one shoulder.
Duo was struck by how young and handsome the bartender looked. He had been eye catching, last night, with his uniform of a white dress shirt and black vest a stark contrast to the warmth of his features. But in his natural attire… Duo had to force himself to look away so that he wasn't caught staring.
He caught himself too late, however. Heero spotted him and came to a complete stop and scowled.
"Fuck," Duo cursed softly. That look wasn't very encouraging at all.
Heero approached the bar and the girl instantly swooped in.
"Heero, this guy was waiting for you. He said he forgot to tip you last night."
"Thanks, Relena," Heero said without looking at the girl. His blue gaze was focused entirely on Duo.
"Er, yeah, thanks, Relena," Duo added with a smile at the girl.
"She's my cousin," Heero was no longer really scowling, but there was a slight frown creasing his eyebrows.
"Only by marriage," Relena jumped in. "Completely unrelated – by blood."
Duo blinked.
"Right…"
"So it's not, you know, we're not really cousins," she clarified.
"I'll change and take over for you in a few minutes," Heero said to her in what Duo thought was a clear dismissal.
She continued to linger, however, and Heero turned away with a sigh and sat down on the bar stool beside Duo's.
"Hi," Duo said.
"Hello," Heero replied, a little warily.
"I wanted to apologize, about last night," he watched as Relena started to move away to the other customers and couldn't help but sigh when she finally took another customers order. "Sorry, she's just –"
"Weird, annoying, overly possessive?" Heero supplied.
"Yeah, I think those are fair adjectives."
Heero smirked.
"You don't have to apologize. And you didn't forget to tip me - you did. Really well."
"I know, I just – I wanted to apologize about basically snapping your head off when all you were trying to do was be nice to a drunk, pathetic old man."
"I don't think you're pathetic, and you really aren't that old," Heero assured him.
"In any case, I shouldn't have done that. You were really nice – to walk me home – and I was a complete jerk. I was rude and it's unforgivable. But –"
"Take me out," Heero interrupted.
"What?"
Heero's cheeks flushed.
"If you feel that badly about it, you can make it up to me."
"By –taking you out?" Duo repeated, not sure he understood what the younger man was saying.
"Coffee, tomorrow afternoon." Heero was still blushing and Duo found himself fascinated by the spots of bright color on his skin.
Duo frowned.
"Are you… asking me out?" Duo asked, incredulous.
"The idea was for you to ask me out," Heero said, a fair amount of frustration in his voice.
"On a date?"
Heero stood with a groan.
"You don't have to. I – I'm sorry. I thought – never mind."
"Wait," Duo caught Heero's wrist and then dropped it as soon as he turned. He had no idea why he cared, but he didn't want the boy to be embarrassed. "I like coffee," Duo said.
Heero frowned.
"And there's a nice place, over by the park, that Italian café?"
Heero nodded slowly.
"You said the afternoon – how about two-thirty?"
"You don't –"
"No, no. You're right. I behaved horribly. The least I can do is buy you a cup of coffee and… if you can avoid the desire to lecture me, you're not bad conversation." Duo smiled, trying to make it clear that he was joking.
Heero shifted the strap of his backpack on his shoulder and Duo wanted to grimace. He didn't really need a reminder of just how young Heero was.
"Okay," Heero agreed after a moment. "I'll see you there, at two-thirty." He grinned slightly, and it was so adorably shy that Duo had to smile back. "But I've got to get to work now."
"Great, great. I'll, uh, see you tomorrow."
Heero nodded again and then walked away, glancing back over his shoulder once before he disappeared into the kitchen.
Duo shook his head. What the hell was he thinking?
He stood up and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out a five dollar bill and left it on the bar counter.
"You forgot to tip him," Relena's snide voice stopped him as he started to leave.
He turned back.
"I'm sorry?"
"You forgot to tip him. Again." She arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, damn. I'll just – well, I'll just have to come back another time, I guess, because I have to run."
Her blue gaze narrowed.
"It sounds like you're just making excuses to see him again."
Duo frowned.
"No, I just – you know what, here? Will you give this to him?" Duo pulled out a twenty and put it on the bar as well. "You're right. I should just settle that tab now."
"Good choice." She picked up both bills and kept a steady eye on him as he left the restaurant.
If anything, Duo was more nervous about meeting Heero for coffee than he had been about his date with Zechs. He tried to console himself with the knowledge that, after the way they had met, it wasn't as if things could go that far downhill. Duo had pretty much already dug himself the deepest hole possible.
Not to mention – it wasn't, in Duo's mind, a real date. Heero was a kid – a nice kid, and yes, Duo could admit, good looking, charming, thoughtful, and witty – and Duo was seven years older and had enough emotional baggage to fill a minivan. It was not a date.
That was his mantra as he walked to the coffee shop and he repeated it to himself even as he smoothed the shawl collar of his gray sweater for the third time. It was not a date.
When he arrived at the coffee shop, Heero was already waiting for him by the front entrance, and he looked charmingly collegiate. He was wearing the same battered sneakers from last night, paired with jeans and a white and gray striped button up shirt, untucked under a blue v-neck sweater. He looked very young, and Duo, in his stylish and very mature sweater, felt like a lecherous old man.
"Hey," Heero greeted him with a smile.
Duo felt himself returning the smile without conscious effort.
"You look good," Duo told him and then wanted to bite his own tongue. This was not a date.
But Heero smirked.
"So do you," he said.
"Shall we?" Duo asked and nodded towards the door of the coffee shop.
"Yeah." Heero started forward, but Duo reached out and opened the door for him. Heero looked equally amused and touched by the gesture.
"They've got really good desserts here, too," Duo said as they walked over to the service counter.
"Okay," Heero said. He bit the inside corner of his lip as he surveyed the menu, and Duo was instantly fixated on the way it made the rest of his lower lip seem plumper.
He had to shake himself when the barista asked him for his order.
"Sorry, a café american and a slice of the brownie cheesecake." He turned to Heero. "What do you want?"
"Ah, just a small coffee."
Duo arched an eyebrow.
"That's it?"
Heero nodded.
"Okay… and a small house coffee."
"It'll be right out," the barista told Duo as she handed him back his change.
"Thanks." He looked around the coffee shop and noticed that a booth near the back was empty. He jerked his head in that direction. "Over there okay?" he asked Heero. The younger man nodded and followed Duo over to the booth.
They sat down on opposite sides and Duo smiled at Heero, unsure what to say to him.
"So, I don't even know your name," Heero said after an awkward silence.
Duo blinked and realized that he hadn't ever told the bartender his name.
"Duo, Duo Maxwell." He held out his hand with a smirk. "It's nice to meet you, Heero Yuy."
Heero shook Duo's hand, one corner of his mouth tugging upward.
"So, what do you study?" Duo asked him.
"Math. I want to teach."
"You want to teach math? That's like saying you want to torture kittens."
Heero glared.
"It is not."
Duo shook his head. "Sure it is. Or maybe it's like saying you like to be tortured. Math? Really?"
"What's wrong with math?" Heero demanded.
"Nothing, I guess, if you like torturing kittens."
"Math is not that bad," Heero insisted. "And human interaction revolves around it. Take the Golden Ratio. Legal codes since Hammurabi have used it as a foundation for justice. Not only that, those mathematical proportions govern the architecture of some of the world's most famous buildings, our music scale is built on it - books during the Enlightenment were published to fit that size, the very branching of our arteries into capillaries follows it." Heero took in the slightly awed look on Duo's face. "Maybe if there were more math teachers like me out there, you wouldn't think it was so painful."
"Like you're going to be," Duo couldn't help but correct, despite the fact that Heero's speech had truly impressed him. He made a mental note to research the Golden Ratio more.
"Yeah," he agreed with a shrug. "What did you study?"
"Creative writing."
"Because that is a field with a lot of job security," Heero pointed out.
Duo smirked at the snark in the young man's voice. Maybe he shouldn't have started out by attacking his choice of major, but it certainly got him passionately engaged in the conversation.
"True, but it's what I love."
"So you're a writer?"
"Yeah, I guess, I am now." It still felt strange to identify himself as that. But, after years of telling people that he volunteered instead of worked for a living, it was actually nice to feel accomplished.
"What do you write?"
"Fiction. Horror. Dark things. I've got a book deal – I'm supposed to have the thing done by next fall."
"Wow." Heero actually looked impressed, and Duo allowed himself a moment of pride.
The barista came over and deposited their drinks and Duo's cheesecake. She very thoughtfully left two forks.
Duo nudged one in Heero's direction.
"It's good, I promise."
"I don't actually eat a lot of sweet things," Heero demurred.
Duo arched an eyebrow at him.
"My dad – he was a dentist – so I've never really eaten sweets."
Duo nodded. It didn't take a genius to guess that Heero had a lot of issues with his father – not after what he had said to Duo two nights ago. The faint, angry scowl he wore was equally informative.
"Still, since you made me ask you out on this date," Duo tried to joke, "you have to try it."
Heero sighed, but picked up his fork and sliced off an almost microscopically small bite.
Duo watched as he ate it, and then almost choked on his own bite as Heero licked his lips.
"That is good," Heero said cautiously.
Duo nudged the plate closer to him, and Heero needed no other convincing.
"I really am sorry about the other night," Duo said as he watched Heero very nearly demolish the cheesecake. He managed to steal a few bites of it, but he felt incredibly satisfied every time Heero took another bite.
"You clearly had a rough night," Heero said with a shrug. He frowned. "I'm not saying that I want you to yell at me again, just that… I understand."
Duo nodded thoughtfully. He was temporarily distracted from the sight of Heero eating the cheesecake by the television in the front of the café, set on ESPN. They were running a feature about Terry Francona getting fired from the Red Sox.
"Damned shame," he muttered, more to himself than Heero.
"You like baseball?" Heero asked, and Duo didn't miss the hopeful note in his voice.
"Love it. I grew up in Florida and when I was a kid, my Dad used to take me to the Red Sox spring training games."
"I was raised a Mariners fan," Heero admitted with a self-deprecating shrug. "I'm from Seattle."
"What made you choose a college so far from home?" Duo asked.
"Exactly that. It was the geographically farthest from home that my father would allow me to attend. Because my uncle lives here." Heero wasn't quite able to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Duo nodded. Definite father issues.
"So, which school do you go to?" He asked.
"Tufts," Heero said.
"And you like it?"
"Yeah – I don't have much time left. I graduate in May."
Duo nodded.
"You want to teach – any plans for graduate school?"
"Yes, but I don't know," Heero shook his head and sighed, "I don't know if I'll stay here or go back to Seattle."
"Do you like it here?"
"Yeah, I do. Not just because it isn't home. I like that it's small, but not… that small. And Boston is just down the road."
Duo nodded. He also like that part of living in Medford.
"Me too. I'm not a big fan of the snow, though," he confessed.
"How long have you lived here?"
"Five years."
"Why didn't you move? After your fiancé died? If you don't like it?"
Duo shrugged.
"It's my home, now. And I do like it. Just not as much in January as I do in September, or now, for that matter. I love it here in October."
Duo abruptly realized that he and Heero were carrying on an incredibly mundane discussion, and that Solo had been brought up several times and he had not become fixated on memories of him. As unexciting as their topic of conversation might be, Duo was more relaxed and comfortable talking to Heero, a near stranger with next to nothing in common with him, than he had been talking to anyone in the last year.
"The park is always nice, this time of year, with the leaves changing," Heero agreed.
Duo didn't know if that was a hint or not, but since both men were finished with the cheesecake and their drinks, he decided to risk it.
"Feel like going for a walk?" He suggested.
Heero smiled slightly.
"Yeah, that'd be nice."
Duo set a fairly sedate pace, and Heero fell into step beside him close enough that their shoulders occasionally bumped together.
"The Red Sox pitching staff is a disaster," Heero said after a few minutes of walking in comfortable silence.
Duo turned to him in dismay.
"What are you talking about?" He launched into a detailed and lengthy diatribe about just how amazing the Red Sox pitching staff was. Heero jumped in to argue against him frequently, and it wasn't long before their discussion reached a loud enough volume that the afternoon joggers started to give them a wide berth as they passed by.
"No, I actually agree," Heero said, once Duo had wound down to a final, mildly affronted protest. "I just wanted to see how you'd react."
Duo frowned.
"And did I meet your expectations?" he asked, a little annoyed.
"Exceeded them," Heero assured him but then looked momentarily uneasy. He stopped walking, and Duo, with a frown, followed suit.
"What is it?" He asked the younger man.
"Nothing. I just – enjoy talking to you. On Thursday night, when you left the bar to join your date, I was actually really disappointed. And even – I don't know, I mean it's not like I really walk every drunk guy home. I just wanted the chance to talk to you more."
"We're talking now, right?" Duo suggested.
"Yeah, but – I don't know what I'm doing."
Duo waited for him to clarify that statement.
"I've never actually, you know, dated another guy before."
"This doesn't – it's not a date, you know. We're just hanging out." Duo wondered if Heero was perhaps going through some exploratory, college phase and trying to decide if he wanted to try being gay. That was definitely not an experiment Duo wanted to take part in.
"No, I want – why do you keep insisting it isn't a date?" Heero asked with a frown.
"Because you're seven years younger than I am! You're in college and you're, I'm sorry because this might offend you, but you're an innocent kid! Christ, just looking at you makes me feel like a dirty old man." Duo ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Why do you feel like a dirty old man?"
"Because I am. I shouldn't be this attracted to you – I don't know you and you're –"
"Don't call me a kid again. I'm twenty-one. Yes, you're seven years older than I am, but I am not a kid. And I'm not innocent. I said I'd never dated another man, I didn't say I'd never been with one."
"Oh." That distinction, for some reason, did not fill Duo with relief.
"I'm not innocent," Heero repeated, his brows drawn together in a scowl. Duo couldn't tell if he was directing his irritation at HIM or at himself.
Duo shook his head.
"Look, I'm barely hanging on here – my life is a train wreck. And yeah, you aren't innocent, you aren't a kid, but I –"
Halfway through Duo's speech Heero stopped him. By kissing him.
It wasn't the most elegant kiss Duo had ever experienced, mostly due to the fact that his mouth was open midsentence and Heero's was closed, but that didn't stop the tingle of excitement that rushed over Duo's nerve endings.
Old reflexes kicked in, and he cradled Heero's jaw between his hands and tried to coax the other man's mouth open.
The taste of chocolate and coffee on Heero's breath made Duo groan, and when the younger man's tongue twined with his own, Duo felt a jolt of desire so strong it made his own breath catch.
Duo slowly eased away from Heero, but the look in his blue eyes made it hard to not simply kiss him again. He looked slightly dazed, and his cheeks were once again flushed.
He stepped back, putting space between them, and shoved his hands into his pockets.
The dazed look left Heero's face and he smirked.
"You were saying?"
Duo's jaw dropped and then he started to laugh. After a moment, Heero joined him, and his deep, rich chuckle was definitely a sound that Duo wanted to hear again.
"Okay, fine. You win." Duo shook his head. "I… yeah. Damn, that was a really good kiss."
Heero brushed his bangs out of his eyes and nodded in agreement.
"I'd like to do it again," Heero said.
"Hell, so would I. Just, not in the park," Duo said when Heero stepped closer. "I'm not a huge fan of making out in public."
Heero's lips quirked upwards.
"We could go back to your place, then," he suggested.
The suggestion sent Duo's heart into overdrive.
"Ah, no. Not – look, we still don't know each other that well. And I don't have the best track record with – my point is, why don't I take you out again next week?"
Heero shrugged. "Sure. I'm off Tuesday night."
"Great. I'll call you?"
"You're old and forgetful, why don't I call you?" Heero suggested.
"God, such a turn on to be called an old man," Duo muttered and Heero smirked.
Duo pulled out his phone, and they traded numbers.
"Okay. Well. This was nice."
Heero nodded in agreement.
"I'll see you next week." Duo said.
"I'll call you," Heero promised and they started to walk in opposite directions.
Duo couldn't help but look back over his shoulder at the young man, and he shook his head when he noticed Heero triumphantly pump his fist in the air.
He turned his attention back to the front, and barely avoided collided with a female jogger.
"Sorry," he said as he stepped out of her path.
Her blonde ponytail almost whipped him in the face as she turned to glare at him behind tinted sunglasses. She looked vaguely familiar, but she had turned and was jogging off in the other direction before he could place her.
Duo was back home in his apartment before the enormity of the day hit him.
He had gone on a date, he hadn't freaked out, he hadn't wallowed in misery and memories of Solo. He had kissed another man. Who wasn't Solo. And he had…liked it. A lot.
Feelings of hope and despair warred within him. He really liked Heero, liked that he could talk to him and not focus so much on the past. But Duo knew himself, and he knew that, sooner or later – sooner, really – this would all go to hell in a hand basket.
The boy whimpered against the gag, and his feet kicked out helplessly, inches off the ground and completely unable to reach anything.
Standing back, he was able to admire the long, lean lines of the boy's body as he hung suspended, stretched out in all of his naked glory. He was too thin, and his ribs were unpleasantly prominent. But his eyes, so wide and filled with fear, made up for that.
He had learned the necessity of gagging them early on – men, especially younger ones, could scream rather loudly in the throes of agony. And he didn't want to risk an interruption to his game.
He looked away from the boy for a moment and pulled up the latest blog entry on his laptop. A Very Dark Corner. Such a delightfully twisted name for such a delightfully twisted mind. He took a moment to admire the thumbnail photo of the writer, and then shook himself as he started to smile at it. Now was not the time. He had a guest, eagerly awaiting his affection. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted.
He was pleased that the blog had been updated again – the previous entry, the girl who couldn't guess his favorite color, had been depressingly short. This latest however, was wonderfully long and full of the details that he loved, and filled with that chill air of excitement and lust that made his blood sing.
He read over it again, quickly, regretfully unable to savor the details, and then he readied his tools.
He hefted the ice pick and then walked back over to the boy.
Debating whether to try it with his left hand, he tossed the tool back and forth between them. HE was right handed, but it had been written for a lefty… well, it wouldn't be the most elegant thing he had ever done, but at least it would be accurate.
As he set to work the boy howled in protest, and hot tears streamed down his face. He always liked that part, loved the glow of the light on damp skin and the reflection of fear through tear clotted eye lashes.
It took longer than he anticipated, and was a lot more effort. Still, he was pleasantly surprised with the results. He never would have thought to use an ice pick in such a creative fashion.
He saluted the laptop and the small photo of the smiling, braided man with devilish, violet eyes with the ice pick before he started to tidy up his work area.
That had been fun. He felt the flush of anticipation flow through him, but he forced himself to calm down and set the emotions aside. Waiting would make it better.