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.

Warnings: Angst, language, violence, sex.

Pairings: PM me if you need to know. But I think it might be fairly obvious early on.

Going the Distance

Chapter Ten

Duo knew it probably wouldn't happen often, hell, it might never happen again, but when TGW beat ZG on Saturday night, Duo couldn't help but pump the air with his fists.

They had beaten them. Had crushed them, actually, after Duo, Trowa and Heero invaded their side of the map to start and had ruined Ralph's early game and used that to put pressure on the Mid Lane and the Bottom Lane and Heero and Quatre had gotten a few kills, built a steady lead and Duo exploited it and the game ended when Duo got a Pentakill, killing every single member of ZG, with the help of Trowa, his only teammate left alive, and it had been awesome.

Probably the best game he had ever played, and as he and Trowa took down the enemy base, as the Victory screen came up, Duo felt as if an immense weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

It wasn't the end of the Split - they still had Super Week next weekend and those four games could mean that TGW finished number one or number seven in the Spring Split, the standings were that close.

Quatre jumped out of his chair and hugged him, and even Wufei patted him on the back and smirked in congratulations.

Heero and Trowa shook his hand as well, and Duo would have hugged them, would have thrown himself at Trowa and told him that he was amazing, that they had just conquered the world together, but when he looked at him and Heero standing side by side all he could really think about was the fact that they two of them were fucking each other, or maybe it had been a one time thing, but it didn't change the fact that Duo had walked in on them on Wednesday night and since then, the three hadn't spoken outside of game chat.

"Let's go shake hands with ZG," Quatre told them, gesturing for them to walk across the stage.

Duo led the way, since his chair was the closest, and as TGW crossed the stage the audience cheered, shouting out their names and Duo felt his heart beat crazily.

Holy shit. He had fans. People were cheering for him - for his team and their victory and holy shit.

Meilin was first in line, and she shook Duo's hand and told him good game. Zechs shook his hand, but remained silent, and then there was Solo.

Solo was still sitting in his chair, still had his headset on and his back was to Duo.

Duo waited, waited for his brother to get up, to turn around, to acknowledge him in any way. He didn't.

It was shit sportsmanship, but Duo had seen it before, from Solo and from a few other pro players. This was the first time it had happened to him, however, and it was shocking how much it hurt.

Duo moved on when Wufei nudged his back, and he shook hands with Ralph, and then with Treize, who took the opportunity to pull Duo close.

"I hope your team enjoys celebrating this victory. It's the only one you will ever have over us."

Duo pulled away and grinned at him.

"I can't wait to shove those words down your throat," Duo promised him.

Treize smirked and released him and Duo gladly stepped away.

As TGW crossed back to their side of the stage the audience was still cheering, and Duo paused to wave back to them. They cheered louder, and when Wufei and Quatre joined them the audience started to chant TGW and it felt incredible.

Heero and Trowa lingered on the ZG side, and it looked like Heero and Solo were ready to rip each other's throats out before Trowa pulled Heero along, dragging him down the line and rejoining the rest of TGW as they packed up their gear and cleared the stage.

Backstage, Relena threw herself into Duo's arms.

"You were incredible!" She said.

Duo laughed.

"Well, obviously."

She kissed him on the mouth.

"I'm serious! I've never seen a play that incredible!"

"Well, it was all of us. I mean - Heero and Quatre did so much damage before they died, and if Wufei hadn't baited ZG into the fight, Trowa and I never would have been able to clean it up."

"The fight was your idea," Wufei reminded Duo. "It was a good plan. I… doubted you, but it was the right call. You won the game for us."

Relena let go of Duo and wrapped one arm around Quatre's shoulders and the other around Wufei's. Wufei scowled at her and Quatre looked a little surprised.

"I can't even begin to tell you guys how happy I am right now. Come on, let's go by that diner near the house and grab some food and -"

"Why are you so happy?" Duo had to ask.

"She bet on us," Trowa speculated.

Duo looked back at him.

"She did this a few times last year. A lot of the PR people will place bets when we get to important games. How much did you win?"

Relena smirked.

"Enough to buy us all a late dinner. So, come on!"

Relena's enthusiasm was hard to turn down.

"We should sign autographs first," Heero spoke up.

Quatre nodded.

"He's right. Half an hour signing autographs outside and then we'll go celebrate."

Relena smiled happily and let go of Quatre and Wufei to hug Heero.

"I cannot believe you just suggested you go sign autographs! My grumpy little babies are growing up and becoming decent humans!"

Heero rolled his eyes but Trowa smirked at him.

Duo forced himself to look away when Trowa glanced in his direction.

They looped around to the front of the studio and stood outside where fans usually lined up to get autographs and photographs of the players after their matches.

Duo wasn't really surprised that ZG was there, nor was he surprised that most of the fans were waiting in line for them rather than TGW.

But it didn't really matter - TGW had won - and Duo actually had people coming up to him for photos and his autograph.

Partly it was because of the game, but he felt confident this was also due to Relena's recent efforts, especially the live stream.

It had been super awkward, sitting beside Heero at first after having just seen him naked with Trowa, but by the time they started the second game Duo was able to put it at the back of his mind, to throw himself into the game and he picked crazy champions, accepting dares from the streaming comments and it had been a blast.

Meilin walked over to him and they posed for a few photographs while she talked to him.

"Sorry about Solo," she said, speaking directly into his ear so that the fans didn't hear her.

Duo shrugged.

"Not like I expected him to hug me or anything."

Meilin sighed.

"He should still just let it go. He's taken it way too far and it's getting fucking annoying."

Duo had to grin.

"Don't tell me you care about me?"

She snorted.

"Hardly. I care about the fact that every game we play against you he gets distracted."

"What can I say, I'm a distracting guy."

Meilin shook her head.

"You were great out there today. I hope I never have to play against you when you're that on top of your game again, but I'd love to watch you take down TSM and Cloud 9."

"I make no promises," Duo told her.

They posed for one more photograph and then Meilin rejoined her team, ignoring the scowls from Ralph and Treize at her fraternization with the enemy.

The half hour passed quickly, and then they piled into the van and Sally drove them to the diner.

"You made two mistakes that game," Sally told Duo on the ride over.

Duo had called shotgun, which Relena had happily relinquished to sit beside Quatre.

"Only two?" He joked. Thinking back on the game, he knew he could have done things differently, played it better. He couldn't think of only two things that jumped out at him, however.

"That twenty minute Baron Nashor fight - you jumped in and tried to save Heero when he was caught out of position. You should have let him die. They were able to kill both of you and if Trowa hadn't disengaged from the fight and backed off ZG we would have lost the game."

Duo sighed.

"Maybe - but Wufei was also coming around for a flank. I thought we might have been able to turn it around."

Sally snorted.

"If it had been Wufei or Quatre out of position, would you have done the same thing?"

Duo frowned.

"That's not really a fair question."

"Sure it is. Would you have done the same thing?"

"No," Duo admitted.

Sally nodded.

"Your other mistake was saving Trowa during that chase after you took the Dragon. Heero got away and you should have just run as well, instead of soaking up damage that should have killed Trowa. You're lucky they didn't take advantage of that and turn it into a double kill."

"Yeah, well, I saved him and he and Heero were able to help Quatre push down the Mid Lane."

Sally spared him a glance.

"And it took a lot longer with those three than it would have taken if it was you, Quatre and Heero."

"So you're saying I made the mistake of trying to save my teammates."

"I'm saying you made the mistake of letting your feelings distract you from the game. You tried to save Trowa - when it's his job to die for the team. You tried to save Heero - when he should have died because he risked everyone else on the team. You don't make those kind of stupid decisions with Quatre and Wufei. You need to be aware that you've started to do it with Trowa and Heero."

Duo wanted to argue with her, wanted to point out that he was just trying to do his job to help out the entire team - but if he really thought about it, she was right.

He did try to help Heero stay alive a lot more than he tried to help either Quatre or Wufei, but he didn't ignore their lanes. He spent plenty of time helping them - he just didn't dive into losing situations with them unless he absolutely had to. And with Trowa… she was absolutely right. It was Trowa's job to die for the team, not the other way around.

"I'll work on it," he promised Sally.

"Good. It also wouldn't hurt my feelings if you got another Pentakill or two this season."

Duo snorted.

"Yeah. I'll get right on that."

They spent two hours at the diner, sharing food and laughing and talking through the game play by play and it was probably the most fun Duo had ever had with his teammates.

Even sitting between Trowa and Wufei, Duo was able to relax, to just enjoy joking with everyone and congratulating each other on their victory. Even with Wufei barely cracking a smile most of the time, even with Trowa's thigh pressed against his, Duo had a good time.

He wasn't the only one - Quatre and Relena were practically glowing and Trowa teased Sally about being sad that she couldn't yell at them for failing and Heero cut loose enough to have a milkshake, a rare occurrence according to Trowa.

By the time they got home it was midnight, and the adrenaline from their victory was starting to fade and the stress and effort of the day was catching up.

Wufei went to bed immediately, Sally close on his heels, but the rest of them camped out in the living room and put on the European games from earlier in the day.

Quatre and Relena shared one couch and Duo stretched out on another, by himself, while Heero and Trowa shared the one Duo had sat with them on during The Watchmen.

"What happened with you and Solo?" Relena asked Heero half an hour into one of the games.

Duo turned his head, curious about the answer himself, and saw Heero scowling.

"He was an asshole," Heero said and he glanced towards Duo.

"He's been an asshole all season," Duo had to point out, and it felt a little like a betrayal, to say that about his own brother, but it was the truth.

"He didn't have to hurt you like that," Heero said, and his voice was quiet.

"I'm fine," Duo assured him and shrugged. "It's not like I thought he was going to be happy about losing to us."

"You looked devastated when he didn't get up or look at you," Trowa said.

Duo swallowed and had to look away from the combined weight of his and Heero's eyes.

"Yeah, well… I'm fine," he said again.

Quatre sighed.

"I wish there was some way we could fix things with you two," he said.

Duo snorted and laced his fingers together behind his head.

"Get to work building a time machine, then, because I don't see any other way to fix it."

-o-

Quatre decided they should treat the week of practice before Super Week like endurance practice - they played scrimmages against other pro teams from noon until six before taking an hour break for dinner and then spending four hours in Solo Queue or team builder.

Duo had still managed to avoid speaking with Heero or Wufei outside of practices and game chat until Thursday night, when they both stayed up after everyone else had called it a night.

Duo realized that too late, and when he got up to leave Heero stopped him.

"We need to talk," Heero said, his arms crossed and he was still wearing his Gunnars, and he looked hot and authoritative and he was right - they did need to talk.

"I'm sorry," Duo said. "I should have apologized sooner. I - I'm sorry." He said again.

And he was, because as sexy as the two of them had looked together, as much as Duo now had a very nearly complete mental fantasy of them to work with while masturbating sometimes, he had still intruded on them, still barged into their room and their private relationship and he imagined they were both still pissed about it.

Heero and Trowa exchanged a look.

"It's not -" Trowa started to say, but Duo held up a hand.

"You don't have to explain it. I'm not judging. It's none of my business. You two… have your… connection," he struggled to find a word to describe whatever it was they had. "That's your thing and it's private and I totally respect that. I'm not going to say anything to anyone."

Maybe they were gay and wanted to stay in the closet, or maybe they weren't gay - maybe this was some kind of bromance that had developed a physical aspect because they didn't have time to date girls? Duo didn't know.

"Thank you," Heero said. He sighed and looked on the verge of saying something more.

"Just, be careful?" Duo suggested. "I could have been Relena or Quatre - or Sally or Wufei. Whatever you guys are doing… I mean, it's your thing. But you care about each other, clearly, and you care about all of this so… just be careful."

Because Duo knew what it was like to have his sexuality used against him, to have words like queer, homo and faggot used to describe him on a daily basis. And he didn't want that for Heero and Trowa.

Trowa actually looked a little frustrated.

"We care about you too," he said.

Duo stared at him.

"Oh," he realized and then he felt like an asshole. He thought back to what Trowa had said to him a few weeks ago, about the team being there for him. "Right. I'm an asshole. I'm sorry I've been avoiding you guys. I just… didn't really know what to say about it. And that was stupid of me. I care about you too, and I should have just… I don't know, filed that away under 'unexpected naked people' and moved on. It's not a big deal. I'm here for you guys."

Heero and Trowa once again exchanged looks, used that silent communication they seemed to have, but then Heero shook his head and Trowa sighed.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Heero said and he offered Duo a faint smile.

Duo nodded and smiled back.

"Definitely. I want us to practice our early game invades tomorrow - I think we can really use that to our advantage over Dignitas this weekend."

Heero nodded and looked at Trowa.

"I'll be up in a bit. I just want to play a few games in Solo Queue," Trowa said, still sounding a little frustrated.

Heero left them and Duo looked over at Trowa.

"Did you want to duo?" He asked.

Trowa shrugged.

"I'm playing on my second account. I just want to work on a few mechanical things."

It sounded like a no to Duo, and he couldn't help but feel a little relieved. As much as he wouldn't mind playing with Trowa - hell, he realized he had never played in Solo Queue with Trowa, Duo usually paired off with Quatre or Wufei while Heero and Trowa always played together - he kind of hoped that NoName3 would be online and he would get the chance to play with him again.

He was in luck. He logged on and saw that NoName3 was on as well, and they quickly jumped into a lobby together.

They played four games together, and their undefeated streak remained intact. Duo had never really experienced anything like this, but over the past month he and NoName3 had racked up almost thirty wins together and not a single loss. Duo had definitely lost games on his own - NoName3 wasn't always on when he was and Duo played on his own, winning some and losing some - and when he looked at NoName3's stats he saw that he had also had a less than perfect record when they weren't playing together.

They still hadn't tried Skyping yet, but despite their lack of easy communication, Duo and the Top Laner had amazing synergy. They were able to pull off crazy plays on pro players all of the time, and had been on the receiving end of more than a few complaints and compliments from their opponents in the post game lobbies.

It still felt like Duo was cheating, on Wufei, on TGW, but he also felt confident that his recent gameplay, his performance at the games last week and the week before that - and even the week before that - could be attributed to the time he spent playing with NoName3. Having another player trust him to make calls, to follow him in even when he didn't know what Duo had planned - it was a welcome relief from Wufei constantly questioning him and Quatre trying to play conservatively. At least Quatre trusted him most of the time, even if he asked him not to be so aggressive. Wufei just flat out refused to make half of the plays Duo wanted to.

It was better than at the beginning of the season, when Wufei refused to make any plays and let Duo die trying to make them on his own. But it still wasn't great. It still wasn't like playing with NoName3.
When Duo finally called it a night it was three in the morning, and Trowa was still playing.

"Night," Duo told him, saying it loud enough that Trowa could hear him despite his headset.

Trowa turned to see him leaving and frowned.

"You just finished a game?" Trowa asked.

Duo nodded.

"Yeah. Won four of them and I figured that's a good streak to call it a night on. You?"

Trowa glanced back at his own computer screen and then at Duo again.

"Were you on your main account?"

"Nah. I try not to use my main account unless we're practicing."

Most pros had multiple accounts, since their main accounts and even their most played secondary accounts were easy to look up, easy to track and easy to see their stats.

Trowa nodded.

"Sleep well," he said and put his headset back on.

"You too," Duo watched him turn back to his screen and start up another game.

He hesitated before leaving, wondering if maybe he shouldn't stay and offer again to play with Trowa - but then the 'match found' window appeared on Trowa's screen and Duo knew he had missed his chance.