Part 4.
Rashid looked at the angry young man in front of him and resisted the urge to pick him up and shake him till his teeth rattled.
'You're going to have to settle. Quatre-sama.' Rashid tried to keep his voice calm and low as the blond man stubbornly shook his head again. 'All this publicity has been disastrous for your holdings, and Winner Inc.'s public image has been damaged badly, maybe even irretrievably. You have a responsibility, not just to yourself but to those who work for you. You have to settle this now. You just can't afford to be dragged into the courts.'
'I'll go to hell before I lose to that rattle brained twit. If he wants to take me to court, then so be it. Duo's going to regret the day that he decided to take me on.'
Rashid shook his head sadly as he looked into the enraged green eyes of the young man he used to work for. He had hoped that when he and the Magnacs had joined Trowa in filing an action suit against Quatre that it might finally shake him and show him that he couldn't just use people without having to deal with the fallout but unfortunately all they had achieved in the end had been to make Quatre, angrier than ever. And now, no one could reason with him, not even Ms Peacecraft, though she had tried her best to make peace between two old friends.
He couldn't really blame Quatre for being so angry though, Duo had really lost control, and in his bid to raise enough funds to wage his legal battle against Quatre, he had sold his story to every rag print in the business. The last straw had been the publishing of 'the letter' with 'the photograph' in the Sunday Telegraph.
According to Quatre-sama, he hadn't written the letter, which publicly declared his unrequited love for Heero Yuy and after he read the drivel in its contents, Rashid had to admit that he was probably telling the truth. Though he had had his misgivings when he first heard of the letter.
After all, there had been that little scene in Tehran when he had walked in on Quatre-sama and Heero-san one evening. Still, he thought, that even if the letter had been genuine, Duo-san had totally broken all bounds of gentlemanly behaviour by having it published. Especially with the accompanying interview where he alleged that Quatre-sama had been at the bottom of all his romantic mishaps with Heero-san, in order to deliberately break the two up.
Rashid looked pleadingly at the tall man leaning against the doorway, his brown eyes begging the man for help. After a long moment, Trowa finally stirred himself and came to Quatre's side.
'Quatre, I think you should agree to drop your lawsuit against Duo and give him the settlement. After all, I've already dropped my lawsuits against both you and Duo. It may be too late to keep all this just between us but we don't have to drag each other into the courtroom okay? What do you say Quatre? And we already have Duo's agreement that he going to drop charges against Wufei for kidnapping Heero. Lets just end this. Come on Quatre.'
Quatre set his mouth stubbornly as he glared at the two men in front of him. He hated not being in control of the situation but for the life of him he couldn't think of a way to resolve it without following their instructions. He swallowed angrily and barely managed to nod frostily at last.
He leaned into his chair, brooding darkly and ignoring Rashid, who broke into a relived shout and ran to Trowa's side, happily pumping his hand and patting his shoulder. Quatre chewed his lower lip as he tasted the awful bitterness of defeat and his head churned with plans of how he could make Duo pay for placing him in this humiliating position.
His eyes narrowed coldly as he reminded himself that there was one person who could drive Duo crazy, absolutely guaranteed. All he had to do was to find him. Then, he'd make him pay. They'd all pay. Quatre swore to himself that he'd get even with the rotter who framed him with that pathetic photograph and letter, no matter how long it took, or whatever it cost. He smiled sweetly and added an extravagant flourish to his signature on the settlement papers that Rashid placed in front of him.
Trowa looked at the angelic looking blond and silently started to worry. He wondered where Heero was...
* * * * *
The yellow convertible drove sedately down the freeway for another few miles then with a loud squeal from its tires, it screeched out of its lane, horrifying the other drivers, before slamming to a halt on the emergency gravelled lane.
'I'm going to kill that bastard!'
The loud scream echoed through the small valley then before the rattled drivers had a chance to collect their wits, the yellow car roared back into life and screeched back into lane, accelerating to over a hundred miles within a few minutes. The frightened motorists timidly continued down the freeway, all of the cars slowing down to a seventy miles of one accord, allowing the maniac in the yellow car to disappear in front of them. They were feeling too strained to pay much attention to a big advertisement board by the side of the road.
On the board was a picture of two men, one a dark haired handsome young man with an intense expression, the other, with black short ponytail pulled tightly behind him and large exotic looking black eyes.
The caption above the second man said, 'have you see this man? He's a kidnapper. Please help rescue my beloved.'
* * * * *
'It's been a while.'
Heero shrugged, keeping his eyes warily on the fuming brunette glaring at him from behind Trowa.
'I heard that you got a lot of money out of Quatre. I'm impressed.'
Duo choked down his fury, trying to keep control over his expression and swallowed down a bitter retort. His counsellor had advised him that his emotional outbursts were probably part of the reason for the problems in his and Heero's relationship. He suspected though, that as in most relationships, the blond had a lot to do with it as well. He searched through all the things that he most wanted to say to Heero and tried to find the least exceptional thing to start with.
'Why is he here?' He finally managed.
Wufei twitched. His black eyes blazed with rage as he shook a ripped poster in Duo's face.
'What... is the meaning of... this?' He snarled as he pointed an accusatory finger at the picture of himself, and the damning caption above.
'Ah that.'
Duo's voice was non-committal as his eyes switched watchfully from Heero to Wufei and back again.
'Don't you think that you should explain first why you ran away with Wufei, Heero? On the day of our wedding?'
Heero felt his heart thumping nervously as the large violet eyes bored into him. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Quatre when he told him that Duo had been receiving therapy and was no longer obsessed with him.
'I didn't run away with Wufei.' Heero started feebly, thinking rapidly over all possible excuses and trying to select the one least likely to trigger Duo's uncertain temper.
'Then why are you with him now?' Duo snapped out, cutting him off in mid sentence, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
'And why shouldn't he be with me?' Wufei interjected, in Trowa's opinion, very unwisely, putting himself between Duo and Heero. 'You don't own him. You aren't even married to him. And I'm still waiting for an explanation of this... this.. fraudulent piece of rubbish!' He ended acidly, waving the incriminating poster in Duo's face.
'Ah.'
Heero turned as he felt a gentle hand tap on his shoulder and gazed into Trowa's face.
'Why don't you come and have a cup of coffee with me, while those two finish... talking.' Trowa suggested with a half smile on his face.
Heero nodded numbly as the voices started to soar again, each competing to drown out the other.
'He hasn't changed.'
Trowa nodded sadly.
'Not at all.'
'And Quatre?' Heero's voice sharpened. 'Where is he nowadays?'
Trowa closed the door firmly, muting the screechs coming from the other room as he steered his friend towards the kitchen.
'Well... he's still not on speaking terms with Duo... and,' he added hesitantly as he directed Heero to the kitchen table, 'I think he's still a little bit upset over that letter.'
Heero blinked in confusion.
'What letter... oh.... that letter.'
'Yes. That. Letter.'
Heero started as he recognised the icy tones that interrupted his conversation. He turned around and saw a very angry looking Quatre walking towards him.
....tbc...
Kat: Well, I guess I'll give people a chance to catch up on reading before I get to the next part now. ^_^
Rashid looked at the angry young man in front of him and resisted the urge to pick him up and shake him till his teeth rattled.
'You're going to have to settle. Quatre-sama.' Rashid tried to keep his voice calm and low as the blond man stubbornly shook his head again. 'All this publicity has been disastrous for your holdings, and Winner Inc.'s public image has been damaged badly, maybe even irretrievably. You have a responsibility, not just to yourself but to those who work for you. You have to settle this now. You just can't afford to be dragged into the courts.'
'I'll go to hell before I lose to that rattle brained twit. If he wants to take me to court, then so be it. Duo's going to regret the day that he decided to take me on.'
Rashid shook his head sadly as he looked into the enraged green eyes of the young man he used to work for. He had hoped that when he and the Magnacs had joined Trowa in filing an action suit against Quatre that it might finally shake him and show him that he couldn't just use people without having to deal with the fallout but unfortunately all they had achieved in the end had been to make Quatre, angrier than ever. And now, no one could reason with him, not even Ms Peacecraft, though she had tried her best to make peace between two old friends.
He couldn't really blame Quatre for being so angry though, Duo had really lost control, and in his bid to raise enough funds to wage his legal battle against Quatre, he had sold his story to every rag print in the business. The last straw had been the publishing of 'the letter' with 'the photograph' in the Sunday Telegraph.
According to Quatre-sama, he hadn't written the letter, which publicly declared his unrequited love for Heero Yuy and after he read the drivel in its contents, Rashid had to admit that he was probably telling the truth. Though he had had his misgivings when he first heard of the letter.
After all, there had been that little scene in Tehran when he had walked in on Quatre-sama and Heero-san one evening. Still, he thought, that even if the letter had been genuine, Duo-san had totally broken all bounds of gentlemanly behaviour by having it published. Especially with the accompanying interview where he alleged that Quatre-sama had been at the bottom of all his romantic mishaps with Heero-san, in order to deliberately break the two up.
Rashid looked pleadingly at the tall man leaning against the doorway, his brown eyes begging the man for help. After a long moment, Trowa finally stirred himself and came to Quatre's side.
'Quatre, I think you should agree to drop your lawsuit against Duo and give him the settlement. After all, I've already dropped my lawsuits against both you and Duo. It may be too late to keep all this just between us but we don't have to drag each other into the courtroom okay? What do you say Quatre? And we already have Duo's agreement that he going to drop charges against Wufei for kidnapping Heero. Lets just end this. Come on Quatre.'
Quatre set his mouth stubbornly as he glared at the two men in front of him. He hated not being in control of the situation but for the life of him he couldn't think of a way to resolve it without following their instructions. He swallowed angrily and barely managed to nod frostily at last.
He leaned into his chair, brooding darkly and ignoring Rashid, who broke into a relived shout and ran to Trowa's side, happily pumping his hand and patting his shoulder. Quatre chewed his lower lip as he tasted the awful bitterness of defeat and his head churned with plans of how he could make Duo pay for placing him in this humiliating position.
His eyes narrowed coldly as he reminded himself that there was one person who could drive Duo crazy, absolutely guaranteed. All he had to do was to find him. Then, he'd make him pay. They'd all pay. Quatre swore to himself that he'd get even with the rotter who framed him with that pathetic photograph and letter, no matter how long it took, or whatever it cost. He smiled sweetly and added an extravagant flourish to his signature on the settlement papers that Rashid placed in front of him.
Trowa looked at the angelic looking blond and silently started to worry. He wondered where Heero was...
* * * * *
The yellow convertible drove sedately down the freeway for another few miles then with a loud squeal from its tires, it screeched out of its lane, horrifying the other drivers, before slamming to a halt on the emergency gravelled lane.
'I'm going to kill that bastard!'
The loud scream echoed through the small valley then before the rattled drivers had a chance to collect their wits, the yellow car roared back into life and screeched back into lane, accelerating to over a hundred miles within a few minutes. The frightened motorists timidly continued down the freeway, all of the cars slowing down to a seventy miles of one accord, allowing the maniac in the yellow car to disappear in front of them. They were feeling too strained to pay much attention to a big advertisement board by the side of the road.
On the board was a picture of two men, one a dark haired handsome young man with an intense expression, the other, with black short ponytail pulled tightly behind him and large exotic looking black eyes.
The caption above the second man said, 'have you see this man? He's a kidnapper. Please help rescue my beloved.'
* * * * *
'It's been a while.'
Heero shrugged, keeping his eyes warily on the fuming brunette glaring at him from behind Trowa.
'I heard that you got a lot of money out of Quatre. I'm impressed.'
Duo choked down his fury, trying to keep control over his expression and swallowed down a bitter retort. His counsellor had advised him that his emotional outbursts were probably part of the reason for the problems in his and Heero's relationship. He suspected though, that as in most relationships, the blond had a lot to do with it as well. He searched through all the things that he most wanted to say to Heero and tried to find the least exceptional thing to start with.
'Why is he here?' He finally managed.
Wufei twitched. His black eyes blazed with rage as he shook a ripped poster in Duo's face.
'What... is the meaning of... this?' He snarled as he pointed an accusatory finger at the picture of himself, and the damning caption above.
'Ah that.'
Duo's voice was non-committal as his eyes switched watchfully from Heero to Wufei and back again.
'Don't you think that you should explain first why you ran away with Wufei, Heero? On the day of our wedding?'
Heero felt his heart thumping nervously as the large violet eyes bored into him. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Quatre when he told him that Duo had been receiving therapy and was no longer obsessed with him.
'I didn't run away with Wufei.' Heero started feebly, thinking rapidly over all possible excuses and trying to select the one least likely to trigger Duo's uncertain temper.
'Then why are you with him now?' Duo snapped out, cutting him off in mid sentence, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
'And why shouldn't he be with me?' Wufei interjected, in Trowa's opinion, very unwisely, putting himself between Duo and Heero. 'You don't own him. You aren't even married to him. And I'm still waiting for an explanation of this... this.. fraudulent piece of rubbish!' He ended acidly, waving the incriminating poster in Duo's face.
'Ah.'
Heero turned as he felt a gentle hand tap on his shoulder and gazed into Trowa's face.
'Why don't you come and have a cup of coffee with me, while those two finish... talking.' Trowa suggested with a half smile on his face.
Heero nodded numbly as the voices started to soar again, each competing to drown out the other.
'He hasn't changed.'
Trowa nodded sadly.
'Not at all.'
'And Quatre?' Heero's voice sharpened. 'Where is he nowadays?'
Trowa closed the door firmly, muting the screechs coming from the other room as he steered his friend towards the kitchen.
'Well... he's still not on speaking terms with Duo... and,' he added hesitantly as he directed Heero to the kitchen table, 'I think he's still a little bit upset over that letter.'
Heero blinked in confusion.
'What letter... oh.... that letter.'
'Yes. That. Letter.'
Heero started as he recognised the icy tones that interrupted his conversation. He turned around and saw a very angry looking Quatre walking towards him.
....tbc...
Kat: Well, I guess I'll give people a chance to catch up on reading before I get to the next part now. ^_^