A/N: For CeeCee who requested 6x2 for #22: You're the DJ at my friend's wedding and you just played my song.
Warnings: language, angst
Pairings: 6x2, 1x3
Duo actually liked weddings - actually enjoyed seeing his close friends tie the knot and settle down to a life of blissful domesticity. He liked getting to stand up and make toasts wishing them every happiness and sharing embarrassingly cute stories about how the lovebirds first met. He liked picking out bizarre wedding gifts to go with whatever was actually on the registry. He liked picking out the crankiest looking guests at the reception and dragging them onto the dancefloor or chatting them up until they smiled.
Duo was, on the whole, a great addition to any wedding. He had actually been invited to three weddings last year not because he was close with either the groom or the bride - or the other bride in the case of one of those weddings - but because he had the reputation of being a must on anyone's guest list.
Of course, considering that this wedding was that of his closest friends - Heero and Trowa - both of whom he had, at one disastrous point or another, briefly dated - and considering that he was Heero's best man, Duo had gone out of his way to make sure that this wedding was perfect.
Which had involved annoying the wedding planner to the point that she threatened to castrate him, had involved Duo nagging the caterer's while Trowa was out of town and Heero, Count Antisocial of the Land of Introverts, sat beside him on the couch and glared at the website menus while Duo calmly explained that vegetarian meant no fish as well as no other meats.
It also meant that Duo had given himself the unimaginable task of running interference between Cathy, Trowa's sister - who was convinced that only Tom HIddleston or maybe the Prime Minister of Canada were worthy of her baby brother's hand and, since Heero was neither, she had disapproved of the wedding from it's very announcement - and Relena, Heero's best friend and captain of his fan club who thought that, even after five years, Trowa didn't love Heero as much as Heero loved him.
It had been bad enough during the engagement dinner, when they tried to one up each other with passive aggressive toasts to the future happy couple. Duo had had to jump in during the middle of what could only be described as an argument about just who was more perfect, Heero or Trowa, and had delivered a very long and very detailed account of Trowa thinking trying to arrange the perfect date to propose for Heero and Heero having the bad manners to go and get stuck in rush hour traffic for two hours while Trowa sat at Masa and suffered through the pointed glares of the maitre'd and drank a $200 bottle of champagne alone.
Duo had thought that after the ceremony Relena and Cathy would relax - or at least ease up a bit since it was a fait accompli. On the contrary, they seemed even more determined to prove whose man was best and Duo was running out of ways to distract them.
It wasn't until, dancing with Cathy and listening to her remark, yet again, that there was nothing wrong with Heero, that he was a wonderful friend to Trowa and of course Heero deserved to be happy but -
But Duo had had enough of it and he neatly maneuvered Cathy into Relena and grabbed the arm of Hilde, Duo's best friend and unwilling assistant in keeping Relena and Cathy from committing murder, and spun her away to the opposite side of the dance floor.
Relena and Cathy had glared at each other for a moment and then, remarkably, started to dance together.
And they continued to dance together for another three songs, before Trowa and Heero smirkingly cut in.
Duo, by that point at the bar and rewarding himself with a much deserved vodka tonic, had felt very smug.
The moment of smug satisfaction lasted for only a moment.
Because then he heard the all too familiar opening chords of Bright Eyes First Day of My Life begin to play.
Duo turned to the bar and tossed back the last of his drink and he cursed himself for being a complete idiot.
In an effort to ensure that Trowa and Heero's reception was perfect, and in a further effort to placate Relena since Cathy's suggestion of florist had trumped Relena's, Duo had agreed with Relena that her brother, Zechs, would be a perfect DJ for the wedding reception.
Zechs, who worked as a music producer for some indie label by day and by night mixed for clubs that were too cool for Duo to even dream of setting foot in,
Zechs, who Duo had dumped two weeks ago after dating him for almost a year.
Duo turned away from the bar and glared at the DJ, furious that he had the audacity to play his song - their song.
And of course Zechs was looking right at him, pale blue eyes shining in the low light, sculpted features as breathtaking as ever, his tall body lean and immaculate and showed off to advantage in the trousers, vest and rolled up sleeves of his dress shirt. He had abandoned his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and Duo felt his own body respond to Zechs' unabashedly open stare.
Fuck Zechs for being the most gorgeous man Duo had ever been with. Fuck him for being able to just look at Duo and make him remember all of the good times. Fuck his smirk and his hair and -
Duo turned on his heel and walked out of the ballroom. He wasn't doing this. Not here, not today. Not ever.
He was out in the hall, walking fast without any real thought to where he was going - not up to his hotel room, not to the lobby or the bar, maybe outside? - when he felt someone grab his arm.
Duo didn't need to look down at the hand to know who it was. He tried to shrug him off.
"Duo."
He stopped and turned to glare up at Zechs. The bastard was, of course, even more irresistible up close.
"I'm not doing this, Zechs," Duo snapped.
"Not doing what? Acting like an angsty teenager who refuses to -"
"Don't you fucking dare -"
"You won't even listen to -"
"I don't care what you -"
"You owe me the chance to explain what -"
"I don't owe you shit, Zechs. And I sure as hell don't need to listen to you tell me that I was -what? A year long fucking fling while your ex was off in Germany? Some piece of ass to keep you from getting too lonely until he was back? I fucking saw you two together, Zechs - I saw you kiss him and I -"
"Stop and let me get a word in."
Duo snorted. "Going to talk your way out of this one?" Duo shook his head. "No thanks. I spent a year with you, Zechs. I know how this is going to go. You're going to tell me I'm just being a child or that I was mistaken and you're going to use that fucking patronizing tone on me and you're going to say something about how good you can make me feel and you -"
Zechs was just staring at him, not even trying to interrupt anymore, and Duo found himself suddenly out of steam.
"I'm not doing this with you," he said again, softer, pleading now. "Please."
Zechs sighed and his hand, still on Duo's arm, slid down to his wrist and then his palm. Zechs knitted their fingers together and Duo stared at them, at Zechs' slightly paler skin.
"You were more than a piece of ass and you were more than a fling. I'm sorry."
Even though he had told Zechs he wasn't doing this, even though he had begged him not to try to manipulate him - Duo hadn't been expecting that. Hadn't been expecting Zechs to not deny it all.
It hit him like a blow, the crushing realization that this really was over, that Zechs really had cheated on him, really had -
"Then what the hell was I?" Duo hated how desperate he sounded.
Zechs squeezed his hand. "You were the only thing keeping me sane. You - you made me realize how much more I wanted. How much more I needed."
Duo snorted. "Don't tell me this is going to turn into the 'I want you back' speech."
"No," Zechs said, brutally honest.
"Oh." It had hurt before, to hear Zechs' soft apology. It hurt even more now, to hear him say that.
Zechs reached out and tugged on Duo's bowtie, a teasing gesture that was still somehow condescending.
Duo glared up at him and Zechs smirked.
"You will always be a very important person, Duo. You changed my life. But you aren't the person I want to spend my life with. One day you'll understand, I hope."
Duo could only stare up at him, for a solid minute, before he let out a bitter chuckle and shook his head.
"Unfucking believable. Yeah. Okay." Duo took a step back and then another, deciding that outside - far away from here - was where he needed to be.
As far away from Zechs as he could possibly get.
-o-
