Superman
by KatiKat
Heero Yuy braced himself against the dashboard as their car flew into another
curve at the speed of light and with squeaking tires. He didn´t release his
breath until all four of the wheels met the road again. Only then did he push
the glasses up his nose and look at the driver - his working partner Duo
Maxwell. Maybe he should get used to him driving like that. They had worked
together for almost a year already but every time they had to use a car to
reach their destination – which happened quite often - and Duo forced his way
behind the steering wheel - which happened quite often too - with an
explanation that Heero drove like an old arthritic lady - it was a new
experience for him.
Duo must have felt Heero watching him because he spared him a glance.
"What?" he barked.
"Do you *have* to drive like that?" Heero couldn´t help but ask.
Duo looked at him, genuinely puzzled. "Like what?"
Heero rolled his eyes and waved his at him. "Nevermind."
The braided young man just shook his head. "You´re a weird one, Yuy."
Heero turned away from Duo and kept watching the city blurring behind his
window. Metropolis wasn´t a beautiful town per se. It was full of industry and
dirty streets and really weird criminals but he liked that. He liked to work
here and live here although he missed his Dad and Mum and the farm terribly.
But Smallville wasn´t that far away after all. And when the homesickness got
really bad he had the phone after all. Heero had to smile when he remembered
Duo´s disbelieving look when he told him that "yes, even such a backwater
place like Smallville had more than one phone."
Heero´s smile grew bigger every time he thought about Duo. The other man was
hot headed, had an awfully bad temper and was almost impossible to work with.
He noticed the admiring looks his other co-workers were giving him because he
managed to stay partners with Duo for so long. What they didn´t know was how
sweet Duo looked when he fell asleep on his couch, files strewn all over him or
when he tried to make coffee and managed to burn the pot - after that Heero
decided it was cheaper if he bought himself a coffeemaker. They didn´t know
that Duo´s weak points were children, puppies and chocolate, and that he sniffled
while watching romantic movies. For the other reporters of Daily Planet, Duo
Maxwell was just a hard professional with no feelings whatsoever. Heero Yuy
knew
better.
It took them another five minutes - five horrible, life threatening minutes -
before they reached their destination - the headquarters of the OZ corporation
and one of the most powerful men in the world - Treize Kushrenada. It wasn´t
every day that the multi-billionaire allowed reporters to enter his fortress of
power and give them a press conference. This was a chance for Duo to play the
interrogator to Treize Kushrenada and he decided to make the best of it and
enjoy it.
Spotting an empty parking place in the nearly full parking lot in front of the steel-and-glass building that belonged to
Kushrenada, Duo sped to it and heedless of another car that showed every
intention of backing into it, he drove in. Tires screeched and they stopped
just milimeters from a cement wall. They were thrown against their safety belts
and with a low "oof" they landed back in their seats. The other car
that was now left with no parking possibility honked at them like crazy
but Duo only opened his window, poked his head out of it and screamed
"stuff it loser." Heero groaned.
"I think I´m gonna be sick."
That sentence, said in a faint tone, drew their attention to the third person
sitting with them in the car. As one they turned in surprise to the blond young
man sitting on the back seat. They were so used to working alone that they´d
completely forgotten that they had a guest.
"Tough luck, kiddo. No puking in my car," Duo said in a stern voice
before getting out of the car.
Heero looked at the somewhat green looking boy with compassion. Quatre Winner
was their new photographer and they should "show him around" as
Howard called it. He was pretty adamant about it. Heero didn´t mind but Duo
protested pretty loudly. The shouting match could be heard through the whole
news room. But in the end, Howard was the boss and Duo had to back off. Even
now Heero could hear the braided man´s gritting teeth as he burst out of
Howard´s office.
Heero smiled just a little. "Don´t mind him. He isn´t that bad. And don´t
believe anything the other reporters tell you about him. I´ve been partnered
with him for months now and I´m still alive."
"We don´t have all day!" Duo barked at them tapping his foot with
impatience.
Quatre smiled shakily at him before he took a deep breath and opened the door
to step out.
After Duo locked the car, they ran across the parking lot and into the OZ
Headquarters. There was no need for the rush but Duo wanted to find a good
place in the auditorium. In the hall he kept pressing the call button for the
lift impatiently, as if that could bring the car down sooner. As soon as the
lift door opened, he waltzed in and pressed the button for the 8th floor where
the conference would take place.
"Where do you think Mr. Kushrenada is now?" Quatre asked, finally
holding his camera ready.
Duo looked at him. "Not there yet. That´s for sure. He will probably let
us wait a while to show us that it´s his good will to organize this conference
and that he doesn´t feel obliged to answer any of our questions even though the
chemicals that escaped his factory in the suburbs endangered the whole
population there. He is an arrogant bastard," Duo ended his tirade.
Heero smirked. He knew that Duo really didn´t like Treize Kushrenada. He heard
something about the multi-billionaire having the hots for Duo in the past, but
Duo wasn´t in the least interested in him which turned these two into mortal
enemies.
Quatre raised his eyebrows. "It was you two who discovered the pollution,
huh? I read the story. It was good."
"Good? It was excellent. And what´s most important - we were the first
with the story. No one even suspected that something like that could happen. I
still can´t believe that people could be really convinced that Kushrenada is
the "good guy". How blind they could be?" In that moment, the
door opened and they stepped out on the 8th floor. The hall was half full of
reporters. Some of them greeted their small group with a short hello or a wave.
But most of them watched them with jealousy though. They knew that the
Maxwell/Yuy team was the best. Their Pulitzer prize was the proof.
They reached the reception table and Heero smiled at the young woman sitting
behind it. "Maxwell, Yuy and Winner. Daily Planet," he said to her
and with a thank you, he took the name tags from her. He handed Duo and Quatre
theirs before pinning his own to his green shirt.
Duo looked at his watch. "The conference will begin any minute now. Ah,
they are already opening the door to the press room," he pointed to the
left where a young woman opened both sides of the expensive oak door to reveal
a big and well lit room. "Come on. I want to get good seats."
Duo started to walk towards the press room. Heero and Quatre followed him when
something caught Heero´s attention. It was a door just to the right of them. It
opened for a moment and Zechs Marquise - Treize Kushrenada´s lawyer stepped
out. But that wasn´t what was so odd. It was the man of whom he caught a
glimpse in that room behind the door. Heero knew that he had seen him somewhere
already. But where...
Duo stopped in the door and turned to Heero, only to find him standing in the
middle of the hall staring at a closed door. Duo rolled his eyes and tsk'ed in
disgust. He was doing that way too often and this "spacing" of some
sort was beginning to be pretty annoying. Duo couldn´t understand that other
reporters thought it was impossible to work with him. They should try to work
with this lunatic from some backwater town called Smallville.
"Heero!" Duo snapped with impatience.
Heero blinked and turned to his partner. "Huh?"
"Shouldn´t we go inside already?"
"I... I think I forgot something in the car."
Duo stared at him. "Yuy, the conference will beginn any minute. It can
wait, can´t it?"
Heero shuffled his feet - he actually shuffled his feet, Duo noticed - and
pushed his glasses up his nose. "No, it can´t. Just... just go inside. I
will be back in a minute." With that he turned and disappeared in the lift
that just arrived.
Quatre blinked. "Uh, he won´t get in the car since you have the
keys," he noticed as he turned to Duo.
Duo was beyond being annoyed. This disappearing act was getting old. He would
never understand how Heero could write a story about something he didn´t even
witness and have all the details. He will find out what mysteries this farm boy
was keeping one day. One day, but not today. Not now. A conference awaited him
now.
"Too bad for him. I won´t chase after him." With that, he turned and
marched into the press room.
*-*-*-*-*
The press conference was going smoothly. Questions were flying through the room
- some of them were even answered -, pictures were taken. Treize Kushrenada
standing on the small platform in the front of the room was the picture of
coolness itself.
"Where is Heero?" Quatre asked quietly.
Duo scribbled the answer to another question - he didn´t believe in dictaphones
or any other technical stuff. Nothing could be compaired to old pen and paper.
"Don´t know, don´t care. Keep taking pictures." Finishing his
scribbling, Duo sprang to his feet. "Duo Maxwell, Daily Planet."
Treize smiled. "Oh, Mr. Maxwell. Nice to see you. I´ve been kind of
curious if you would show up here. Do you know that I have every intention to
sue your paper? You dirtied my good name."
"You never had a good name," Duo muttered under his breath. "I
have a question. Is it true that two enviromental agencies in two years pointed
out that your company was breaking the law?"
Treize smiled and opened his mouth to say something when the door flew open,
and a man with a gun in his hand burst into the press room shouting "Die
Kushrenada". Two of Treize´s bodyguards threw themselves at him and
started to struggle for the gun. All of the reporters dropped to the ground.
Only Duo was peeking out from his hiding place, taking notes like crazy. Then
the gun went off.
But before someone could get hurt, a blur of red, blue and yellow flew through
the room and stopped next to Duo, catching the flying bullet just centimeters
from his face. All the noise in the room stopped.
"Superman," Duo whispered, his eyes widening, his cheeks turning red
- his normal reaction to meeting his beloved superhero. Duo rose from the
ground, dusting his black trousers and coughing nervously. "I... I...
I..." he stammered looking at the big red S on Superman´s chest and
cursing silently the lack of his self-esteem in the presence of the handsome
alien. Thank god Heero wasn´t there. He would have never lived that down.
"You okay?" Superman asked and Duo nodded.
"I should thank you. This... this could have ended pretty badly."
Superman smiled. He raised his hand and touched Duo´s face, lifting it up. The
rosy hue on Duo´s cheeks deepened as he looked into his hero´s cobalt blue
eyes. "You should be more careful. Next time I may not be there."
Duo blinked, the velvety voice doing miracles to his body. "Okay," he
answered faintly.
None of them seemed to notice that the would be killer was led off and that
Kushrenada disappeared too. They were just too engrossed in each other. It was
the flash of a camera taking a picture that destroyed the magic, and they
turned to Quatre who was holding the camera in his hands, while grinning like a
fool. Duo´s flush deepened so that he was looking like a tomato. Superman just
smirked.
The reporters surrounded them, shouting questions at the superhero but Superman
wasn´t paying any attention to them. He leaned into Duo´s personal space, and
for a moment the braided young man thought that he would kiss him. But the
alien just let his lips touch Duo´s ear as he whispered: "The guy was
Mueller. He wasn´t here to kill Kushrenada. I heard him talking with
Kushrenada. He was ordered to kill you and Heero."
Duo blinked as Superman moved away, smiled and disappered in a blur of blue,
red and yellow again. The professional reporter replaced the infatuated man
then. So Kushrenada wanted him dead? And Heero too? Well, he... they will show
him who they were and that it wasn´t wise to play with them.
And where the hell was Heero?
As if that was a sign for him, a breathless Heero rushed into the room, looking
around in surprise. "The conference is over already?"
Duo rolled his eyes.
"No, but there was this guy who wanted to kill Mr. Kushrenada and then he
almost killed Duo and then Superman appeared and saved him and..." Quatre
went on and on excited about what happened.
"You almost got killed? Are you alright?" Heero asked, his voice full
of concern, as he moved his glasses up his nose again.
"Yeah, yeah," Duo waved him off, scribbling something in his
note-book. "But Superman gave me some really interesting
information."
"Superman was here?" Heero looked around, curiosity and excitement in his voice.
Duo rolled his eyes again.
The crowd of reporters almost dissipated, acknowledging that nothing interesting
would happen now and rushed to their offices to write their stories so that
they could appear in the evening newspapers.
Duo moved to the lifts too, still scribbling something down. "I think we
should continue our investigation of Kushrenada´s shady business," he said
to his co-workers who were following him again. "We should look closely at
the would-be killer. Superman said it was Mueller. You remember him Heero? The
guy we caught selling guns downtown? And then we should..." he ranted on
and on not letting the others get a word in.
They looked at each other. Quatre´s look was surprised, Heero´s amused and
tolerant.
"Is he always like that?" Quatre asked in a hushed voice, but Duo
didn´t even seem to notice.
"Like what?" Heero answered in the same tone of voice.
"Like... a human hurricane I would say."
Heero smiled. "You should see him on his bad days."
Quatre´s eyes grew big. "Bad days? So this was a good one?" he asked
in horror.
"Actually one of the best."
Quatre groaned. "I think that his bad day will kill me."
Heero laughed.
"Are you two even listening to me?" Duo snapped at them, as he turned
around and saw them whisper together. "This is important! Stop behaving
like children. We have work to do. Damn it. Where is the lift?" he barked
out, hitting the call button over and over again. "Finally!" he
shouted when the door opened and they stepped in. "And where the hell have
you actually been Yuy?" The question was the last thing that could be
heard before the cabin´s door closed.
And in the lift a boy with cobalt blue eyes, glasses and tons of secrets smiled
to himself.
´If you only knew Duo. If you only knew...´
The End
