Author: BadMomma
Warnings: AU (my first), limey
Pairings: 1x2x1, some mention of 3x4, OCs
Rating: R for language and some sexual situations
Disclaimer: Own them, I do not.
Feedback: Craved, greatly appreciated and always answered.
Notes: See first chapter.
Summary: A Renovations Consultant finds more than just old buildings of interest on his new job site when he gets tangled up with the resort's Program Director.
03Possibilities
The crunch of footsteps on the gravel outside his open window let Duo know that he'd be having company. Figuring it could only be one of two people at this hour, he called out on the way to his bedroom without bothering to check who it was. "Door's open, come on up. I'll be out in a minute." Closing the bedroom door so he could dress in private, he heard the answering thump of footfalls on the stairs and the sound of the front door opening and closing.
Once dressed, he hung the damp towel back in the bathroom and headed for where his visitor was likely to be. As expected, he came face to face – in a manner of speaking – with a pert round bottom peaking out from behind the fridge door.
"See anything you like?" He leaned a hip against the counter and waited for his friend to emerge.
"Maybe. But I'm pretty sure you did, didn't you?"
"Well it is my fridge, babe, but I'm not the one looking." He approached the fridge and slapped the exposed bottom, eliciting a yelp from its owner. "And if you'd be so kind," he playfully shoved her out of his way, "dinner beckons in the microwave."
Hilde turned with a beer in hand and scooted out of the kitchen. She took up her usual spot on the other side of the counter and started leafing through some papers he'd left there, feigning interest in their content. "So?"
Duo set his dinner to heat and turned to regard her. "So… what?"
"So I was showing the Grand Ballroom a couple of hours ago and overheard some conversation on the boardwalk." She looked up at him through the fall of her hair and batted her eyelashes rapidly.
"Aw jeez, don't start with me, OK. The guy just got here."
"And?"
"And nada, Hil. Do you even know who I was talking to?"
She smirked at him evilly. "Well no, is he some handsome-billionaire-playboy here to sow his wild oats? You seemed to know. Seemed to be on very good terms with him, I'd say. Sitting all close and gazing at him all lovey-dovey." Batting her lashes again, she feigned a swoon.
It got her a flying potholder in the face and an exasperated huff. "God, Hil, you're such a dick sometimes, there was no lovey-dovey-ing. He's the renovations guy Mr. Z said was coming this week."
"And will he be?"
"Eh? What do you mean 'will he be?' He's here, you saw him didn't you?" It took a moment before her true meaning became clear. "Oh my God!" He looked around frantically for something else to throw at her that wouldn't break on impact or seriously injure her. "You are such a fucking pervert. I just met the guy this morning! He happened to be out for a walk, I happened to be sitting there so he came over to say hello. We were just talking! He helped me with my limerick, we made an appointment to meet later this week and then he went home. End. Of. Sto - ry."
"Oh! He wrote you some poetry, too? How romantic!"
That eyelash batting was really beginning to get on his nerves. "You know, just because your sick little mind likes to imagine me putting the moves on every hot guy that walks the earth does not mean that that's what's happening."
"So you admit that he's hot?"
"Well yeah, of course. He is." He stopped to wonder if maybe he shouldn't have answered that so quickly but decided it would have been a lie to deny it. He definitely thought Heero was hot. "But that doesn't mean I was doing anything about it, OK. I think your boyfriend's hot, too, remember?"
"Yes but we're not talking about my boyfriend, are we? We're talking about Mr. Hottie." She waggled her eyebrows at him which elicited another huff. "You gotta admit, Duo, the situation's got potential. He seemed awful keen on you. Didn't move away when you sat down, came back right when you called him. And he watched you go long after you tried to shoo him away."
Waving a dismissive hand, he turned from her at the chime of the microwave to retrieve his dinner. "Jesus Hil, I thought you were showing the Ballroom. What were you doing spying on me when you had clients to take care of?"
For that comment, she waited until he turned back to her and flicked him off. "My prospective clients were discussing amongst themselves, Duo, I wouldn't have ignored them just to spy on you." She frowned at him for insinuating that she'd neglect clients, but then took pity and tossed him the potholder when she realized that he was burning his fingers on the plate. "I'd spotted you sitting there when I'd brought them out to see the patio earlier so when it came time for them to confer, I just excused myself outside. Figured I'd take the opportunity to say hello but by then you were already heading down the stairs to sit with the guy. I had nothing better to do, so I watched."
"They must'a conferred a damned long time." He gave her a dubious look and shook his head in frustration at her meddling. Carrying his dinner over to his side of the counter, he set it down. After grabbing a fork and settling in on his stool, he gave her a pointed look.
She returned it with an equally pointed one of her own.
After a good minute or two of staring at each other, he gave up and started in on his meal. He reminded himself it would do no good to argue with her. At times he wondered how they'd managed to develop such a tight friendship in the short time they'd known each other. He was now much closer to her than he was to her boyfriend.
Shortly after she'd started dating his high school buddy four years ago, she had begun insinuating herself into his life and taking an increasingly active role in its outcome. Much to the amusement of their small circle of friends, she announced – only six months after meeting him – that she was taking on the role of his big sister being that the post was vacant and she was a few months older. Over the years, her self appointed sisterly duties had included harassing him about his grades, telling him what to eat and what to wear, advising him on home furnishings and attempting to shape his love life. The last being her favorite activity.
Although today was not one of those times, he usually found her meddling absurdly comical. Despite having been total fiascos, her initial attempts to set him up with numerous girlfriends had been very entertaining. The key, she had informed him after the first few failures, would be pinning down the right type of partner for him. He hadn't had the heart – or the guts – at the time to tell her just how far off track she was.
It wasn't until she'd accidentally run across him, lip-locked with a classmate in the stacks at the college library, that she'd finally pinned down his type. Despite his current annoyance with her, he couldn't help but smile at the memory of her reaction. After staring dumbly at the guy's departing back, she'd turned on him and huffed 'I didn't know the captain of the swim team was into guys!'
He'd actually been rather relieved that she'd taken it so well. They'd spent the next hour or so talking right there in the stacks. He'd admitted to her that of all his high school friends only one knew of his preferences, and that one friend had gone away to school. She'd encouraged him to tell the others and, like the big sister she claimed to be, she'd stood by him when he had. In the end, things turned out better than he'd expected. After the initial shock of his announcement had worn off, only one of his 'buddies' had decided to sever their ties.
Having hit a hot spot in his meal, he reached out and took a swig of her beer. In the process of putting it back, they made eye contact. Grinning, she tried to get their conversation restarted.
"So what have we established here?"
He swallowed the mouthful he was chewing and put his fork down. "We've established that you're nosy."
"Given. And Mr. Renovations is a hottie."
"Given. And his name is Heero."
She nodded. "OK. We've established that there's potential?"
"You may have but my jury's still out."
"Fine. That you might like there to be potential?"
He gave that comment only a moment's thought before responding. "How about that you're a pervert who likes to imagine guys doing things with each other when you should be worrying about other things?"
"I don't need to imagine it; that's what I have you and cable TV for."
Taking a last bite, he rose and took his plate to the sink, shaking his head. There was no reasoning with her when she got like this. Returning to the counter, he picked up and finished off her beer, but said nothing further.
"I think we've also established that I could be hitting pretty close to the mark on this one."
He held up the empty beer bottle between them and smiled facetiously at her. "I'd say we've established that your 'one for the road' is finished and today's head-shrinking session has ended. Go home, Hil, I'm sure your boyfriend is just dying to see you." He turned and set the bottle down in the sink. He could clean up after he got rid of her.
"That might be, but there's one more point to establish before I go, little brother."
He turned from the sink and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. "Alright, what is it?"
"That we'll be keeping an open mind about this one."
He raised both hands in the universal gesture for why, so she continued.
"Look, he's educated, employed, successful and most likely smart. He is running this project, right, and he can't be that much older than us. And he's good looking to boot. What more do you need?"
"Oh, I don't know, how about" he began ticking them off on his fingers, "not married, not attached, not straight, not psycho, not looking for a quick fuck, and not… not-from-around-here?"
"What's so great about being from around here? So what if he's not?"
"Uh, excuse me, I live here!"
"Yeah and? Like you couldn't live where he does?"
"Hello! Earth to Hilde! I met the man barely 12 hours ago and you're ready to pack me up and send me off to… to… Shit, I don't even know where he lives. Can you not see how ludicrous this conversation is? Please, go home." He waved toward the door to emphasize his point.
"Look, all I'm saying is that you should keep an open mind. Is that too much to ask?"
"No. Fine. You're right. I'll keep an open mind, I swear. Now go home please, I still have to finish my final assignment for class and work on the schedule for the festival."
For a moment she just stared back at him with a silly smile. He did his best to keep from smiling back but it was hard. After another minute he gave up.
His answering smile was enough to make her bounce in place a few times before coming around the counter and throwing her arms around him for a hug. When she'd exhausted her bounciness she pulled back, affectionately kissing him on the cheek. He ruffled her hair and returned the kiss, then pushed her away playfully.
"Go away! I have homework to do. Or don't you care about my grades anymore?"
"Of course I care!" She laughed and happy-danced her way to the door. "That's why I come by and bug you so much. If I didn't care, I wouldn't bother."
All he could do was roll his eyes; making her grin again as she pulled open the door.
"See you for breakfast tomorrow?"
He nodded once.
"You've got your last final next Tuesday, right?"
He nodded again and pushed off from the counter.
"You study already?"
He nodded some more and crossed to the door.
Standing halfway out the door she smirked and raised an eyebrow at him. "You gonna have sweet dreams tonight or what?"
All humor dropped from his face and he gave her a playful shove to get her all the way out. "Go away" he muttered – not really all that mad – before closing and locking the door. He listened to her descend the stairs, all the while shaking his head.
Over the crunching of gravel on the path she called to him, "Goodnight Duo!"
"'Night Hil!" He called back and made a beeline for his desk.
He really did have an assignment to finish before going to bed, though the schedule for the festival could wait until tomorrow. A stray thought made him smile goofily at her earlier comment.
Yeah, hopefully, he'd be having very sweet dreams tonight.
Thursday's were Camp Days, the day when the kids from the summer camp came to the resort. We had an arrangement with the yacht club, they sent us the kids one day a week and we entertained them. For a fee of course, but still.
We had different activities planned appropriate to the particular age groups but they all pretty much followed a single format. There were outdoor activities in the mornings; a dip in the ocean, a trip to the pool or some manner of competitive sport – soccer or softball or volleyball, sometimes sailing lessons for the older kids. Around noon we fed them lunch and in the afternoon we did some indoor activities; movies, arts and crafts, hula dancing, video or board game tournaments. It usually worked out well - mostly the kids were nice and well behaved. Between my staff and the camp's own counselors, we pretty much had things under control.
Being the Programs Director, it was my duty to coordinate, but aside from that I took great pleasure in Camp Days. I had at one time considered becoming a teacher and Camp Days allowed me to indulge that particular desire without having to give up my greater love which was computer graphics.
Mid-morning found me out on the patch of green to the west of the main resort building, where the main festival events would be held just a few weeks from now, assisting in trying to teach a bunch of rowdy 8 to 10 year olds the basics of soccer. We had set up cones on the ground so they could practice ball control, they were running relays back and forth between the cones under the careful tutelage of the hired help. I'd decided to take a break and was almost done checking in with the rest of my crew by radio when I caught sight of an increasingly familiar and incredibly pleasant sight.
Mr. Renovations Consultant himself, Heero Yuy, was walking the grounds; camera dangling from a strap at his neck, satchel slung across his back, notepad in one hand and one of those wheeled measuring things in the other. You know, the orange things with the big wheel that ticks off yards and feet as you roll it along. Anyway, Heero was milling about, snapping pictures and make notes around the back of the building. I got so distracted just watching him I forgot to check in with Charlie, my #2 guy on the permanent staff. Fortunately, he'd been listening in on the radio chatter and called in the all-OK.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and used it as an excuse not to run right out and rejoin the soccer mini-clinic, just so I could watch Heero a little longer. The guy was damned cute. And he looked absolutely luscious today in a long sleeved, white button down with the sleeves rolled up, snug fitting jeans and floppy hat. Twice, I thought I saw him look in my direction so I waved; a casual 'how ya' doing, buddy' kind of wave, I thought. But on both occasions he just looked back down to scribble some notes and continued about his business, meandering farther away from the building.
How does that expression go again? "Fool me twice, shame on me." Well, he may not have been trying to fool me, but I was definitely feeling a fool. And had very possibly been acting it for several days now. Every time I'd caught a glimpse of him lately I'd gone out of my way to go over and say hello. And even when he wasn't around I'd found myself thinking about him, about what he might think or say about something, about what he was doing, about what we could be doing together.
I really needed to get back to what I should be concentrating on and not daydreaming about a certain young stud. I turned away from where he was standing, intent on stashing my water, grabbed a marker and put several big DMs on the label so no one would accidentally take it later. I was just closing the lid on the cooler when I heard the pleasant rasp of his voice behind me.
"Duo?"
I looked up to find Heero stepping into the shade of the picnic canopy we'd set up, wiping a hand on his jeans and extending it out to me.
"Hey Heero, how's it going?"
We shook hands amiably and he smiled, pulling the hat off his head and wiping his brow with it. "Good thanks. You?" He pushed his dark sunglasses up into his hair and smiled.
"Oh fine, a little hot right now, but doing fine."
We smiled, nodding and, in general, doing that stupid guy thing we all do when we don't quite know how to continue a conversation. He stuffed the hat into his back pocket and attempted to rearrange a few things about his person without much success. "Mind if I…" He motioned to the small card table where we'd dropped our clip boards with the schedules and list of campers, wanting to put his things down for a minute.
"Yeah sure, go ahead. Hey, can I get you something to drink?" I pulled my bottle back out of the cooler and placed it at the corner of the table, intending to grab another one for him, but I never got around to it.
His "Oh great! Thanks!" made me look up in time to see him chugging the rest of my water. He finished it off in no time and I was left gaping at him. I tried very hard not to think about his mouth being where mine had just been. When he caught my expression, he took a good look at the bottle, only then noticing my initials all over it. "Oh shit, sorry!" He had the funniest look on his face. It was a combination of horrified and… embarrassed maybe?
"It's fine" I chuckled and waved it off. "There's more where that came from." He still looked a little horrified, so I reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "It's fine, Heero, really. And I don't have cooties or anything, so you should be safe."
He snorted, the horrified look receding and leaving embarrassed out in the open. "Sorry, wasn't even thinking." He shrugged and turned back to organizing his things on the table.
I mumbled a 'don't worry' as I looked over at the notepad he'd left open on the table. I picked it up and we spent quite a while talking about what he'd been doing this morning and some of the ideas he'd gotten while making his observations of the main building. I confirmed some of his suspicions about the changes that had been made to the facades and we talked about what it might entail to restore some of the original designs. That led to a rehashing of some of the topics we'd covered the previous morning, our first official meeting together about the resort.
Yesterday's meeting had been enjoyable for me on many levels. Aside from his rather pleasant physical attributes, I found Heero appealing in other ways too. He was smart. Sharp as a tack. He had a quick mind and an amazing ability to grasp visual concepts without needing to have them laid out for him. I found him to be open in his thinking, flexible in his ideas; he was willing to seriously consider ideas even if they had not occurred to him. I could see why Mr. Z spoke so highly of him.
I'd also discovered that Heero had a quiet, dry humor which complemented my slightly sardonic nature well. Unlike me, he wasn't the type to be cracking jokes or making people double over with laughter, but he was really funny in a deadpan, demented sort of way. It was intelligent humor. And I'm nothing if not a sucker for brainy guys.
There was one other thing about Heero that I was finding really appealed to me. He had a certain… shy? endearing? sweet? quality to him I didn't often find in other people. Those words sound pretty lame when you think about it; but he was just unassuming, not full of himself, weirdly hesitant in his attempts to be friendly. It was like he wanted to offer his friendship but wasn't sure if it'd be welcome so he treaded lightly. I hadn't quite figured it out yet but I was really looking forward to doing so.
I didn't find that in a lot of guys nowadays, not if I hadn't known them for years. Most the guys I'd met recently seemed to feel this overwhelming need to determine what our relative positions were in some pecking order that existed only in their minds. That attitude was probably responsible for my near celibate lifestyle over the last couple of years. It might all boil down to the fact that most my long time friends didn't feel the need to prove themselves because we'd known each other for as long as we had; but, for me, the desire to not have to prove myself to anyone or have anyone prove themselves to me was paramount. Heero's attitude fit perfectly within my comfort zone.
I hadn't realized how long we'd been talking until the horde of soccer players began to advance on the coolers. Heero moved himself and his belongings to the far side of the table while I muttered apologies to Christie and Joe, the other counselors who I'd abandoned to handle things on their own, even as I began handing out drink boxes and water bottles to the kids. They brushed it off saying it was no trouble, but I still felt horrible. And then I realized that I was no longer grabbing things from the cooler because the drinks were appearing in my hands. Heero was there passing drinks to me with a slight smirk on his face.
"It's the least I could do." He said in answer to my implied question.
I accepted the help gratefully and we soon had our charges rehydrating and cooling. I let Heero handle the last few drink requests while I talked briefly with Christie and Joe, convincing them both to leave the pick up to me and insisting they head inside early for lunch with the horde.
It took another fifteen minutes to take a roll call and get everyone lined up and ready for the trip to the dining room. I radioed ahead to warn the kitchen of their arrival. By the time I turned back to thank Heero for his help he'd disappeared.
Except that his bag was still on the table.
I looked back out over our patch of green to see him already gathering up the cones and balls. I watched him as he carried a handful of cones in one arm and bounced a ball from foot to knee to chest. Repeating the action a few times before kicking the ball back toward the tent and going for the next cone. He really seemed to be having fun… like a little kid out there. OK, maybe not a 'little kid', but much younger than what I'd guess his age was, Mr. Z'd had said he was about my age.
Shaking myself out of my pleased stupor at his continued presence, I grabbed the ball bag and called after him. "You know you don't have to do that."
"I know." He called back and then kneed a ball high up in the air. Placing himself in just the right position to intercept it on the downward curve, he headed the ball right at me.
What can I say? I flinched. Gut instinct made me drop what I was holding and bring my hands up to deflect the incoming projectile. The ball connected directly with my forearms – about mid-chest on me – and I heard him bark out a laugh. When I looked he had an evil smirk on his face.
"Hand ball," he called, "possession goes to the opposite team."
I gave him a look that clearly said I didn't appreciate being the butt of his target practice and bent to pick up the things I'd dropped. "Yeah, whatever you say Pele. Just bring that shit over here if you really intend to help."
Within minutes we'd worked our way to a midpoint from opposite ends. As we were stacking all the cones and putting the balls in the bags, Heero cleared his throat. "Sorry about… before," he mumbled seriously, motioning at the ball.
I straightened and looked right at him. I almost laughed, thinking he was faking the regret, though he really did look like a little kid that had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.
"S'alright, you just surprised me, is all. You were pretty good with the ball. You play before?"
"Hmm. A little in high school, more so in college."
"Yeah? Me too! Well, I played with a team in the Y until about middle school." I smiled and began moving toward the tent. "We can just leave these out here for now. I'll come back later with one of the guys in a cart to dismantle the tent and take it all back to storage."
"OK." He agreed amiably and began pulling his things together as soon as we'd settled the equipment in a loose pile. "So… I'm Pele, huh?"
I laughed. "Well it was either him or Maradonna, couldn't think of anybody else right then. And I hate Maradonna."
"Yeah, he was an ass!"
"Oh shit. You could be Beckham!"
"Beckham? No, too flashy. The hair, the jewelry." He waved a hand dismissively.
"Rather have funny hair than no hair like that French guy, what's his name?"
"Who Petit?"
"No man, the other guy. From that World Cup they won, uh… Z-something, Zanzeen? You know!"
"Zenadine."
"Yeah that's him."
"He's a very good player."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'd rather have cool hair and be famous like Beckham. Z-man didn't get a movie named after him, you know." He laughed quietly as I pulled two waters from the cooler; handing him one and sitting against the edge of the small table. "Do you follow FIFA play?"
"A bit." He'd finished gathering his things and stood sipping his water, waiting for me to elaborate.
"Are you doing anything Saturday afternoon? Cause if you're not, wanna come watch some EuroCup games with me? I'm meeting some friends at a sports bar in town. We're gonna watch the afternoon game and maybe hang out for a while. Play some pool and stuff. Should be fun!"
He thought about it for a minute before nodding his acceptance. "Sure, I'd like that."
"Cool!" I hopped back up and we talked some more about soccer.
That slight tentativeness that always seemed to enshroud him receded just a bit. I guess he was just one of those people that kept quiet unless he felt very comfortable with his situation or found a topic he really liked. Several minutes passed again as we talked and it was with some reluctance that I realized it was time to part company. I couldn't put off going back inside any longer. I didn't so much mind missing lunch – I'm sure Lucy would let me raid the kitchen later – but I really needed to get back to work. He probably did too.
We said our goodbyes; I pointed out the direction I was headed and he pointed off the other way. We programmed each other's numbers into our cells, him promising to get in touch with me about the details for Saturday before we head off. It wasn't until I found the dining room empty of campers and councilors alike that I realized just how much time had actually passed.
I was really starting to enjoy spending time with this guy.
TBC