A/N: This fic is an AU that has the boys playing professional League of Legends. I'm going to try my best to not get bogged down too much in game terminology or things like that, but, well, I WILL reference the game and try to explain as much as I can, as I go. I'm also way too lazy to make up "new" teams for the league, so I will be using existing teams and players, with the exceptions of Team Gundam Wing, Zodiac Gaming, and the Valkyries. So… I will be referencing real people and real teams.
A/N #2: If you get the chance, you should totally watch some of the NA LCS Championships this weekend. Sunday at 3pm EST is the third place match, Monday at 3pm EST is the 1st/2nd place match. And if I post this in time… Saturday at 8pm EST is one of the semi-final matches (Cloud 9 vs. Curse). You can watch them on Youtube or Twitch - just search for "lol esports." I promise it's worth watching - even just one game - to understand just how big of a deal League of Legends really is!
A/N #3: I commissioned the amazing hasuyawwn to make awesome arts for this. Check out my tumblr (claraxbarton or a very dark corner) to see a totally badass Duo!
A/N #4: I have had... issues with recently. Please be aware that if suddenly my work starts disappearing from this site or is no longer updated, I have not stopped writing. You can find it posted on Archive of Our Own and/or linked on my tumblr.
A/N #5: Is anyone still reading the author's notes? If you are, THANK YOU so very, very much for these reviews. There are a lot of guest reviews, but also just a lot of reviews and I can't tell you what a happy nerd I am to know so many people are enjoying a fan fiction about my favorite dudes playing my favorite game. You all are amazing.
Warnings: Angst, language, violence, sex.
Pairings: PM me if you need to know. But I think it might be fairly obvious early on.
I PROMISE the DuoxJason isn't going to last. I promise, promise, promise it's not.
Seriously. Any chapter now it's going to be done with.
As you will soon see.
Going the Distance
Chapter Seven
"It was awful. Just God-awful and terrible. The Wachowski brothers should never make another movie. Ever again."
Duo groaned.
"No. No. It was awesome - Mila Kunis was so badass! And you can't stand here and tell me that Channing Tatum wasn't just… a fucking walking wet-dream."
Jason sighed and shook his head.
"Yeah, sure. He was hot. But it was a stupid movie, Duo. An action flick with barely any plot at all."
It was Monday night, Duo's official day off, and they had decided to go see a movie. Jupiter Ascending had opened a few days before, and it had either been that, some kids movie, or Fifty Shades of Gray.
They had sat through the end of the credits, because Jason had a friend he had gone to college with who was a sound guy and Jason wanted to see his name up on the big screen, but were now walking towards Jason's car in the parking lot.
Duo bumped his shoulder against Jason's.
"But you got to sit in a dark theatre with me for two hours and stare at Channing's abs."
Jason ducked his head down and kissed Duo.
"I would have rather sat in a dark room and stared at your abs for two hours."
Duo snorted.
"No. One, you couldn't see them in the dark. Two, you couldn't really see them because I am not build like him. I'm a pro gamer. I don't live in a gym."
"You're still in decent shape," Jason said.
"Yeah, well, chalk that up to me doing sit ups and push ups whenever I get anxious. Which is pretty much all the time these days."
They reached Jason's car and got in.
"I watched a few highlights from your game on Saturday," Jason admitted as he pulled out into traffic.
"Really?" Yesterday, at the soccer hang-out, Jason had asked him how the game went but hadn't pressed Duo for details when he said they lost.
Relena had, not surprisingly, invited herself along, but instead of sitting on the sidelines to watch she insisted on playing. Some of the guys had bitched about it, a few had said she could play only if she was on the skins team, but in the end Jason had shut them up and Relena had played with the shirts squad and actually done a great job. She was quick, and knew how to pass the ball.
She also knew how to be obnoxious and returned all of the guys catcalls and bad mouthing with a fair amount of her own, so that by the end of the game, half of the guys appeared to be in love with her.
It had been a good distraction for Duo, who really didn't want to talk about the game or his brother. It had been a bit of a disappointment when Jason declined their offer to come back to the house for lunch, but he and Duo had at least scheduled this date for tonight.
"Yeah. It… I mean, I'm still not really sure what the fuck is going on in these games, but it looked close."
Duo sighed and leaned back in his seat.
"It was close," he agreed, and couldn't help but think of those moments in the game when things could have gone differently. If Solo hadn't gotten that triple kill - if Duo had been able to steal Baron - if Heero had been able to kill Zechs for first blood at the start of the game.
"Did you and Solo talk?"
Duo snorted derisively.
"No. He completely ignored me - didn't even shake my hand after the game. Didn't even look at me."
"I'm sorry."
Duo shrugged.
"It's whatever."
Jason laughed.
"It's 'whatever'? What does that even mean?"
"It means I can't change it and there's nothing I can do about the fact that my brother and I are going to meet up… every weekend for the next eight to ten months and he's going to ignore me."
"Except you could do something about it," Jason pointed out.
Duo turned to glare at him, but Jason's focus was on the road.
"What, exactly, can I do about it? You want me to send him flowers or something?"
Jason turned his head enough to arch an eyebrow at Duo.
"No, I think taking your anger out on me is probably the best way to handle the situation."
That shut Duo up.
Jason was right - being snarky wasn't going to help. And it wasn't as if Jason was trying to make it worse - he was trying to help, Duo knew. But Jason didn't quite get it. Didn't understand that Duo was in a sport where he was actually actively hated because of what he had 'done' to his brother and his brother ignored him at every step of the way - in public and in private. Jason didn't have the pressure to succeed for his team, the hatred of the community pressuring him to fail, the isolation of being the only out player in the league and getting flack for his sexuality, his very existence - on top of flack for any and every mistake he made.
Jason didn't have a quarter to half a million people ready to call him out for anything he did.
The rest of the car ride was in silence. Jason didn't even turn on the radio and Duo suspected it was because he was waiting for Duo to speak up, to apologize.
And by the time Jason pulled into the driveway of the MSG house Duo felt like an anxious, guilty asshole.
He turned to Jason.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I - I get that you're trying to help."
Jason didn't seem too impressed with the apology. He arched an eyebrow and remained silent.
"It's just - it's not that simple, Jason. It's not like I can just call him and say, hey, bro, can we just forget the last seven months happened?"
"Why not?" Jason challenged him.
"Why - what?"
Jason shrugged.
"Why can't you just call him and say that?"
Duo gave a bitter laugh and pulled out his phone.
"Okay. This is why."
He went into his contacts and selected Solo's name. He pressed send and held the phone up to his ear.
It rang, three times, and then there was a shift as the call was answered and immediately ended.
Duo held the phone out so that Jason could see.
"That's why," Duo said, and he was pretty damn proud of how even his voice sounded. "Because when I do try to call him that happens."
Jason looked irritated.
"You could have just said that. You didn't have to -"
"Yeah, I did," Duo interrupted him. "You're on this whole thing about how this is on both of us - but I've fucking tried to fix this from my end. Short of becoming a stalked and showing up at the ZG house and begging him to forgive me, I'm not sure what the fuck else I can do."
Jason sighed.
"Are you picking a fight about this because you need to have an argument with me or because you're upset that he ignored you on Saturday?"
Duo forced himself to count to ten. And then realized that he had just forced himself to count to ten.
"I should go," he decided. "You've got work in the morning, and I don't want to have an argument with you - for any reason."
Jason stared at him, his gray eyes searching for something. Then he shrugged.
"Okay."
Duo wondered if he should try to kiss Jason, but his body language didn't suggest it would be welcome, so instead, he sighed and released his seat belt.
As he got out of the car, Jason reached out and grabbed his hand.
"Coffee on Wednesday morning?"
Duo nodded.
"Yeah. Of course."
Jason let him go and Duo closed the passenger door.
He watched Jason drive off before he walked up to the front door of the house.
That had been a fucking catastrophe, he decided. He supposed it was something, the fact that Jason still wanted to get coffee on Wednesday morning, but this night had not gone the way Duo had wanted it to go.
He'd envisioned a dinner, a movie, a lot of sex and falling asleep with Jason again. He'd wanted an evening without thinking or talking about Solo. Jason cared, and that was good, Duo knew, but… he didn't get it.
He let himself into the house and debated going right up to his room and staring at the ceiling until he fell asleep or grabbing a pint of ice cream to take upstairs and eat his feelings for a while.
The decision was taken away from him.
Relena pounced on him as soon as he walked in the door.
"Duo! Come join us!"
"What?"
"We're all watching The Watchmen - Quatre's never seen it."
"By all of us you mean?"
"All of us. Wufei, Sally, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, me - and you. Come on."
Duo sighed. He really wasn't up spending three hours with Wufei, who had spent all of their Sunday practice cranky and growling, upset over his own performance on Saturday; or with Heero and Trowa, who had spent the practice in their usual Heero-Trowa cone of silence and who Duo was still pissed at for making fun of his Pokemon boxers.
"Big blue penis…" Relena said in a sing-song voice. "You look like you could use a few hours of staring at Billy Crudup and Matthew Goode."
That part didn't sound so bad, and Duo did really like the movie.
"We've also got popcorn."
"Yeah, okay."
Relena grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her into the living room.
Sally and Wufei were seated on one of the couches, both stretched out yet somehow keeping space between them - it was clear that both set a fairly high value on personal space.
Relena sat down on the couch where Quatre sat, while Heero and Trowa occupied the third couch.
Duo figured he'd be about as welcome to join Wufei and Sally as Ralph would be, and there wasn't much room left on Heero and Trowa's couch from the way they were sitting. Then again, Relena looked like she was trying very hard to invade Quatre's personal space, propping a pillow against his thigh and laying her head on it before stretching out.
Which left the floor as Duo's only safe option.
He sighed. This night… Hell. This year.
But as he started to look around for where to sit on the floor, Heero and Trowa moved apart, wordlessly shifting on their couch to make room for Duo to sit between them.
"Thanks," he said.
Heero shrugged.
"No problem," Trowa told him.
Duo sat down cross-legged on the couch, Trowa just a few inches to his left and Heero a few inches over on his right.
Trowa passed him the bowl of popcorn.
"Mind holding onto this?"
Duo shrugged and propped it on his crossed ankles - probably it was a little inappropriate to put it directly over his crotch, as delightful as that mental image was.
"Okay, now that we're all settled - onto big blue cock time!" Relena commanded and, with a roll of his eyes, Wufei started the movie.
"How was your date?" Trowa asked Duo as the credits started.
Duo looked over at him. Trowa hadn't really ever asked about Jason, in fact he had seemed ready to back up Heero every time he made a snide remark about Duo wasting his time or not focusing.
He shrugged one shoulder.
"Fine until we got into a fight about Solo," he admitted.
Trowa frowned slightly.
"I'm sorry," he said, and sounded genuine.
Duo sighed.
"Yeah, me too."
He leaned back on the couch and turned his attention to the movie. He put thoughts of Jason and Solo to the back of his mind. There would be plenty of time to beat himself up about both of them later.
-o-
There was something warm and hard against Duo's cheek.
He woke up slowly, adjusting to his surroundings and realizing he was still on the couch. But someone had put a blanket over him and he'd moved. Instead of sitting in the middle of the couch, he was -
Shit.
That hard warm thing under Duo's cheek was Heero's shoulder, and Duo had curled up against him, knee resting on Heero's thigh and his entire body pressed against Heero's left side and -
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Duo slowly opened his eyes and looked around.
The living room was still dark, but it looked like everyone else had gone to bed. On the flatscreen TV, the movie had ended and it looked like the commentary was on, the volume incredibly low.
And judging from the way that Heero hadn't moved at all, from his even heartbeat and his deep breathing and - soft snoring? - Heero was asleep.
Duo gently eased away from him, grateful beyond measure that Heero was asleep, that Heero hadn't been awake to feel Duo practically crawling into his lap and cuddling with him.
"Have a nice nap?"
Fucking kill me now, was Duo's only thought when he turned to see Trowa still on the couch, a smirk on his face and his green eyes glittering in the dark.
"Er, yeah." Duo rubbed his face. "His shoulder doesn't make the best pillow, though."
Trowa chuckled softly.
"Tell me about it," he groused.
Duo arched an eyebrow at that. He was curious what exactly Trowa meant by that statement. But even more so -
"Please tell me no one else saw me sleeping on him," he begged Trowa. For the life of him, Duo didn't even remember when he had fallen asleep, much less when he had shifted over to lean on Heero.
"I think Relena did," Trowa said, clearly amused by Duo's horror. "But everyone else called it a night before you two started snoring too loudly.
Duo flushed.
"How loudly?"
"Not that loudly," Trowa assured him. He nodded towards Heero, still asleep, still softly snoring. "Just about like that. You two were pretty cute, actually," Trowa continued. "You actually had your arm around him at one point, before I put the blanket on you."
Duo buried his face in his hands.
"Oh God no."
Trowa nodded.
"Yep - but my favorite part?"
"Please don't tell me," Duo begged.
"A few minutes ago, you tried to move away and Heero pulled you back. You just made this kind of grumbling noise and settled back against him."
"This is so embarrassing," Duo muttered.
"Not for me," Trowa remarked and ate a piece of what had to be at best room temperature popcorn. "Watching you two was much more interesting than watching the movie."
"You're evil," Duo informed him, but then he got off the couch and stretched.
Trowa just continued to smirk, and Duo thought it really was criminally unfair for him to look that sexy when he had that expression on his face.
About as criminal as it was for Duo to be staring at him and wondering what it would feel like to kiss Trowa when he'd just had a fight with Jason a few hours ago and - Duo was a mess. A fucking mess.
"Ready for our scrimmage against Dignitas tomorrow?" Trowa asked.
Duo shrugged.
Like most teams, TGW practiced in a variety of ways. They tried to schedule at least two five hour blocks of time each week for scrimmages against other pro teams, and spent the rest of their practice times split between Solo Queue, custom games, and Team Builder games.
They hadn't faced Dignitas yet - either in scrimmages or in a real game - and Duo was curious to see how they would stack up against the team.
"More ready for that than my interview on Wednesday," he muttered.
Trowa gave him a sympathetic look.
"You knew it was coming - all of us had to go through it when we joined or did something worthy of Youtube attention."
Duo rolled his eyes but had to smile.
"I watched Wufei's interview - dear God. I thought he was going to pull off his headset and throw it at the monitor."
Trowa nodded, his smirk turning into a full fledged smile.
"He was pissed for days after that interview. He couldn't believe Thorin dug up that info on Wufei losing to Meilin Long when she used to play top lane back in her Solo Queue days."
Duo shook his head. It had been hilarious, watching his team mate completely lose his cool over being reminded that Meilin, the current support for ZG, had made a routine habit of stomping all over Wufei when they played against each other in the top lane.
"Worried he'll ask about Solo?"
Duo gave him a look.
"Tell me in what world he wouldn't ask about Solo?"
Trowa shrugged.
"You could go on an armed robbery spree tomorrow and that might distract him from asking about your brother."
Duo chuckled, but before he could offer a comment, Heero woke up.
"What time is it?" He asked, stretching on the couch and looking ridiculously adorable and slightly cranky.
Trowa smiled fondly at him.
"About two in the morning."
Heero nodded and looked ready to curl back up and go back to sleep, but Trowa stood up and pulled Heero to his feet.
"No. If I let you sleep down here you're just going to bitch about muscle cramps tomorrow," Trowa said.
Heero glared at him, but Trowa returned the look steadily until Heero shrugged.
"Fine." He looked over at Duo. "Sorry about your date."
And with that, the two left.
Duo stared after them. Every time he thought he had them figured out, something weird had to happen.
-o-
"It's going to be fine. Just don't mention the arrest or the fight backstage and everything will be fine."
Duo glared at Relena.
"Pretty sure Thorin will bring up the arrest - and of course I'm not going to mention the fight backstage. I'm not an idiot."
Relena gave him a look, but refrained from arguing that point. She turned a critical eye to his clothing.
"I like the team jacket - and the black t-shirt looks good on you. Hm. Track pants? Not jeans?"
Duo rolled his eyes.
"I'm going to be sitting at my computer - it's a Skype interview. He's not going to see my pants unless I get up and dry hump the monitor."
"Don't do that either," Quatre spoke up, his only words of advice thus far as the three of them sat down in the kitchen to talk about the interview that would take place shortly.
"Thanks," Duo muttered, "I was on the fence about how appropriate that would be, but now that you've said no…"
Quatre nudged his shoulder.
"Duo. It's going to be fine. Thorin is a fair guy and OnGamer's just wants a good interview - they don't want to bait you into saying something stupid. You just need to keep your cool and only talk about what you want."
Duo nodded in agreement. He knew that, on some level, this interview wasn't destined to go badly.
But, considering the way everything else in his life went, he wasn't about to walk into it feeling confident. Especially not after that morning.
Coffee with Jason had been… tense, to say the least. Jason still thought he was being kind of childish about this whole issue with Solo - he had actually suggested that Duo needed to just put it behind him and move on. Which would be great, if Duo wasn't reminded of it every day, and if Duo didn't actually love his brother and miss him. Jason had also said that he couldn't make the games this weekend - he was a tax analyst, and now that it was February he had to work on Saturday and had made plans with a few college buddies for Friday night.
Duo was fairly confident he was being punished by Jason for not admitting that he was wrong, and while it would have been nice to have Jason come to the games, Duo actually felt guilty for realizing that what he regretted the most was the missed opportunity for sex after his games.
Which made him realize that either Jason wasn't the only one looking for just casual - or that Duo really needed to think about what he wanted out of this relationship and how this relationship was even supposed to work.
Jason worked every weekday from eight until five, sometimes six, and now Saturdays. While Duo didn't mind getting up early a few days each week to meet him for coffee, Jason had shot down the idea of spending the night on Monday when they had first scheduled their date and implied that he didn't really want to wake up in a bed that wasn't his own on a day when he had to work.
"But also, don't forget to mention how excited you are for the challenges this year… how much you want to get better and how much you love the team… be positive," Relena added.
Duo nodded.
"Yeah. Of course."
Relena checked her phone.
"Okay, you've got about ten minutes. Go to the bathroom, take a piss, check your teeth, make sure -"
"Chill out, Relena," Duo interrupted and glared. "I can do this."
But he followed her advice, going upstairs to take a piss, wash his hands, brush his teeth again and make sure his hair wasn't a mess.
He remembered Solo's OnGamer's interview, when he had first gone pro two years ago. He remembered the way Solo kept fiddling with his cross, the pendent necklace that matched the one Duo wore around his own neck. Duo had teased him about that afterwards, had called him a dork and Solo had pulled him into a headlock and called him an annoying little bastard. But Solo's interview had been good. He was confident, cocky as hell at times, but he was also just self-conscious enough and self-deprecating enough with his jokes that you couldn't help but smile with him, laugh with him, and generally fall in love with him during that hour long interview.
Duo was under no illusions about his own upcoming hour of torture.
Solo had joined ZG two years ago and been instantly hailed as a master of the mid lane, a brilliant pick up and a fan favorite from day one. Thorin, the interviewer for OnGamer's, had managed to sneak in a few personal questions, about Solo's struggles to make it as a pro-gamer, but even those questions had only made Solo seem like even more of a hero, had earned him even more fans.
Duo, on the other hand, was the fan favorite of no one - hell, the one fanboy he did have seemed to be losing interest - and he had been called a terrible player and a bad decision since day one. He had everything to prove and he had no doubt that Thorin could just close his eyes, throw a dart, and find an interesting and painful question to ask Duo about his personal or professional life.
As he left the bathroom he saw Heero and Trowa leaving their shared room.
He offered them a weak smile.
The scrimmage yesterday had been amazing - Duo didn't want to start feeling overconfident, but it really felt like TGW was starting to gel, and he and the bottom duo had made some amazing plays together.
"Want us to hang out in the game room or give you space?" Trowa asked.
Duo was startled by the question, by the consideration.
He thought back to the interviews he had watched. Sometimes the subjects had their teammates in the same room, practicing or goofing off behind them, and Duo wondered if he would feel more relaxed or more uptight if Heero and Trowa were there.
"I downloaded a karaoke app on my phone," Heero spoke up and held it out as proof. "If things get too awkward I can turn it on and start to sing."
It took Duo a few seconds to realize Heero was joking, and then he started to laugh.
"Oh my god - please - please," Duo gasped. The mental image of Heero standing up, starting up karaoke on his phone and breaking out into song - all with his typically expressionless face - it was too much for him to handle.
Trowa smirked and Heero's lips twitched upwards into a satisfied grin.
Duo wiped away tears and pulled himself together.
"I don't think that will be necessary," he decided, "but yeah, you guys can hang out."
As Duo settled into his chair downstairs in the game room, he tried to calm his nerves - picturing Heero singing karaoke was surprisingly effective - and when Trowa and Heero logged onto their accounts a few seats down from him, Duo could see them out of the corner of his eye and he felt… reassured by their presence.
He put on his headset and opened up Skype and waited for the call.
-o-
"So, a lot of fans are curious, I'm sure you know, about your relationship with your brother."
For the first twenty minutes the interview had gone well. Thorin asked Duo about his Solo Queue days, the Challenger team he had been on two years ago but had been dropped from when the team made the professional league last year because he was too young to play. But now, it seemed, it was time for the hard questions.
Duo shifted his headset a little, adjusting it over his ears and buying himself some time.
"When you say fans, do you mean my fans? Because as far as I know, I don't have any." He went for a joke.
Thorin laughed.
"I'm sure you've got one or two somewhere out there," Thorin consoled him. "But, I meant fans of the game in general."
Duo shrugged.
"Well, I mean, Solo's always been my brother and he still is. Now he's just also the competition." He felt that was fairly neutral.
"Have things changed between you? Since you joined the LCS?" Thorin pressed. Duo appreciated the fact that he didn't come out and ask about the assault and subsequent arrest - but then again, maybe he still would.
Duo shrugged again.
"Not really. Solo's always said I'm his annoying little brother and I'm pretty sure he hasn't changed his opinion of me all that much. Especially after I stole his blue buff on Saturday."
Thorin chuckled at that and Duo relaxed. Maybe that would be it.
"I'm sure you're aware that most Zodiac Gaming fans blame you for the fact that ZG came in sixth last year and had to win the promotional-relegation tournament at the beginning of this season just to stay in the league."
Or Thorin could blindside Duo with that.
Heero and Trowa had turned in their chairs to look at him. Even though they were in the middle of a game - Duo could see their screens behind them - both turned to look at him. Heero held up his phone and Duo had to fight to keep a straight face.
Duo tried to think of a joke to deflect the question, but struggled. He sighed.
"Here's the thing. I'm sure a lot of people who watch this interview hope I bad mouth my brother or ZG. Or maybe they hope I make a total ass of myself some other way - and maybe I will. But I love my brother. I respect him as an amazing League player and he's my hero - always has been. But what happened last year - his arrest - he did that. Those were his actions and I get the motivation, but I didn't do it. It sucks that ZG fell apart over those three weeks when he was suspended. It sucks that they rely on him that much to carry them to victory. But that's not on me either. I'm glad ZG made it back into the League. Solo is an amazing player and he belongs in the highest level of competitive play."
Thorin nodded, as if he had expected that answer.
"And the rest of ZG? You speak highly of your brother, but what about the rest of that team?"
Duo shrugged.
"Meilin is amazing - everyone knows that. I mean, she's no Trowa Barton," Duo looked away to smirk at Trowa, who rolled his eyes in response, "but she's definitely one of the best support players in the league."
"Zechs?"
Duo shrugged.
"He's cocky. Which is great for me as a Jungler because I get to punish him for it."
Thorin chuckled.
"Yes, I think we all remember that moment in your last game when he got a little too greedy trying to chase down Heero Yuy and you killed him."
Duo nodded.
"Yep. I think my team has a lot to prove - to ourselves, the fans and other teams. But we're going to prove it. There is a crazy amount of talent on our team. Trowa, Heero, Wufei - Quatre in the mid lane. Any team would be lucky to have any one of these guys. And we've got all of them."
"And you," Thorin added.
Duo shrugged.
"Yeah. And me. I bring style points to the team, obviously."
"As well as drama. I have to ask about the video - I'm sure you've seen how viral it is already."
"Video?" Duo repeated stupidly. He looked over at Heero and Trowa, but they shrugged.
"It was posted this morning. The video of the altercation backstage between ZG and TGW last weekend."
Duo had to stare.
"Right."
"So my question has to be, will your team be able to get past all of this bad blood and the distractions of your conflict with ZG to be competitive?"
-o-
Up Next: Updates for Entanglement, After Happily Ever After and… something new and different and really exciting!
