What About Me?
Chapter 6
***
October 8, AC 204
For some unaccountable reason I was nervous all day. This was the day Hilde returned with my new partner in this mission, which, by the way, I was liking less and less with every report I read. All of Mien's aides were nasty fellas with rap sheets as long as my braid for a variety of offenses: grand theft auto, breaking and entering, armed robbery, manslaughter, murder, rape... the list went on and on and I wasn't too sure I wanted to be infiltrating and tricking these highly dangerous people. I, for one, felt a little rusty after more than six years since my last big assignment, despite my regular visits to the gym and my Preventers physicals once every six months, which stated that I was in prime physical condition. I hoped my new "partner" knew what he was doing, and tried to convince myself that he was, seeing as how he caught Mien and managed to stay alive while doing so. I was beginning to get a bad feeling about this guy for which Lady Une left me no name.
My continuing nerves caused me to become a little short with Vicki, and, after making her cry for the third time that morning, made every effort to loosen up a bit before I tucked her in for her afternoon nap; after doing so, I headed to the kitchen to be chilled by a few more reports on Mien's aides while waited for Hilde and the new guy to return, having already made up the guest bedroom in the house. I certainly didn't want this new guy to think that a Gundam Pilot wouldn't go into a mission prepared, and I was determined to have everything memorized. Just to show him up.
***
When we got on the shuttle I was nervous; when we touched down on L2 I was terrified; now, on our way to Duo's house, I was beyond petrified. Certainly it would have made several people I know laugh until they had aneurysms and died to know that the "great Heero Yuy" was absolutely shaking in his boots to meet a three-year old little girl and a 24 year-old man I knew for a fact I out-weighed, out-muscled, and out-grew. (Although common sense would dictate that a Japanese man always be shorter than an American one, I hypothesized the vitamins I took during the war made me an uncommonly tall Asian person at 5'10", and Duo's malnourishment as a young teenager caused him to be a shorter-than-average Caucasian at 5'8".)
At 13:00 hours we pulled into the driveway of a huge (at least for L2 standards), moderately-attractive two story brick house. Practically on the verge of passing out, I stumbled fearfully behind Hilde as she strode confidently up to the door, seemingly not bothered by the fact that Duo would rip her limb from limb when he realized who she had brought home to be living with him for the next several months, at least, if not longer. Removing a key from her pocket, Hilde opened the ordinary-looking deep brown door (why I thought it would be anything other than ordinary I don't know) and stepped inside, calling out cheerfully, "Duo! I'm back, and I've brought the guy in to help you on the Mien case."
From the direction of the doorway on the left I heard a mumbling involving something with the word "name," before the sound of a scraping chair was heard and a wonderfully deep, melodic voice was whispering, "Shhh, Hilde! Vicki's sleeping!"
In a daze, I heard Hilde whispering back, "OH! Sorry, Duo, I forgot," before I finally caught a glimpse of my long-ago lover and felt like Wing Zero had decided to plant it's foot in my chest.
Despite his short height, Duo still appeared to fill up a room, with broad shoulders and a thin athletic body I knew he kept in good shape from regular workouts and I knew despite his slender stature weighted in at close to 200 pounds from well-hidden muscles. The braid was actually shorter than I remembered, and I figured having not cut it since he was born, the split ends had to have been getting pretty bad and forced him to chop some of it off. The color was still that rich mahogany brown, with auburn and golden highlights twisting through the braided mass.
When I finally dared bring my eyes up to his face, I disregarded their shocked state and focused in on the color of his eyes, still that unusual purple that haunted my dreams with the look of betrayal that I'd last seen in them. Though Duo didn't have the lash length of say, me (Relena once told me my lashes better are suited to a lady's), they still framed his eyes attractively, the same rich brown as his hair. He'd lost most of the baby fat from the war, his face angled and sharpened into the planes of a man. His high cheekbones made his large eyes stand out even more, and, though dropped in an expression of shock, his lips still looked full and inviting. I remembered well their brilliance when lifted in a smile, but at the moment he looked like he needed to be hooked up to a heart monitor. I uneasily stood where I'd stopped inside the front doorway and waited for what he had to say to be after several years of abandonment and betrayal.
It sounded like he said "I hate being psychic." Did I mention I was confused as well as scared?
***
I could hear Hilde's rather noisy entry into the house, followed by softer footsteps of someone I could tell had been a soldier from their unnaturally soft tread. Nervous, and not just because Hilde had probably woken up Vicki, I stepped into the kitchen doorway and felt my heart stop.
'Damn, I hate being psychic,' I thought to myself, and might have said it out loud from the startled look Heero suddenly sent my way. I made an effort to keep my thoughts to myself this time, 'Ever since I realized no one would give me his name, I feared my new partner would be Heero.' I gave a mental sigh. 'I should've known. Only Heero could infiltrate a complex hierarchy such as Mien's in as little as three years and come out alive. He always was a tough little bastard.'
The man who'd haunted my dreams (nightmares and wet alike), stood inside my front doorway, a faintly scared? nervous? look in those piercingly blue eyes. Ignoring that interesting little detail for the moment, I dropped my eyes to his boots and started a slow travel up. I was mildly annoyed to find he'd somehow managed to gain some height on me, and added that to the list of things I was pissed off at Dr. J for. Though he was dressed conservatively in plain blue jeans and a white T-shirt, I could still see the hint of muscle that he'd always had through the wars and appeared to keep up through peacetime. His shoulders were broad, and for some reason I seemed to be stuck there, almost... afraid to look into his face. Then I mentally smacked myself. 'Shinigami fears nothing!' I swallowed and looked up.
His face was as angular as I remembered: the strong chin, the prominent cheekbones exposed by too little fat in his face, the jutting brow bone, those cute little split ends at the ends of his eyebrows that freakily reminded me of Trieze... I remember when I used to tweak them to annoy him... The brown hair was longer, collar length, and the brown color looked faintly off, like a poor watercolor imitation of his former chocolate brown locks. Finally I shored up my determination and... peeked at his eyes before looking away. They still looked that rich midnight blue you find at sunset right after the sun has set. Often when I moonwatched at night, I looked at the sky, and was reminded of him.
That and the fact that every time I looked into Vicki's eyes I saw his.
Deliberately looking towards the stairs where sounds of Vicki stirring could be heard, I heard myself ask very causally, "I suppose you're wanting to see her?" and patted myself on the back for the cool degree of indifference in my voice that I could tell surprised Heero. I gave a little inward smirk, supposing he had been expecting a temper tantrum full of angry words from me. I wondered how he would react to the milder, mellower Duo Maxwell I was now.
***
I tried to contain my surprise as Duo very nonchalantly asked me about Vicki, and promptly forgot about his tone of voice as the anticipation of finally seeing my daughter hit me. I found myself nodding eagerly and moving into the living room that Duo gestured me into while he brought Vicki down. Nervous (I couldn't seem to get the butterflies out of my stomach), I sat down upon the couch, tensing up when the sound of footfalls on the stairs reached my ears. I held my breath as Duo brought the toddler into the room, settling her carefully on her feet.
She was perfect, and as I studied her I could see the resemblance to both myself and Relena... the texture and color of her hair, the shape of her eyes and face, the naturally proud way she held her head... Unsure, I looked up at Duo.
Looking surprised, then almost... bemused, he knelt next to the child and whispered a few words in her ear, giving her a gentle push in the direction of the couch upon which I sat. I sensed that she wasn't nervous or unsure about my presence, just curious, and her gaze seemed almost knowing as she looked at me. Suddenly breaking into a grin which puffed up her rosy cheeks, she toddled my way, asking all the while, "You're the man in the pictures?"
Abruptly finding myself with an armful of squirming baby that I had no idea what to do with, I once again turned helplessly to Duo.
Looking uneasy, he answered my unspoken question. "She's seen pictures of you... and news reports and things that I've taped... I would never keep your existence from your daughter, Heero," he spoke softly. "She knows who you are."
I was unexpectedly smacked in the cheek by an inquisitive hand. "'e looks jus' like the pictures!" she said to Duo, hands still roaming over my face, pulling at my hair until I gave a little wince. My expression of shock - and pain - must have registered, because Duo just chuckled softly and said, "I'll leave you two alone," closing the door on myself and my daughter for the first time.
***
Duo walked out of the living room, shutting the door calmly behind him, before moving over and hitting the wall next to the door with a muffled thud, sliding down the wall to land with a weary groan on the floor, hands covering his face. I knelt beside him and hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder. "Duo? Are you okay?"
From inside his arms came a muffled "no." He offered nothing further.
Kneeling helplessly next to him, I was suddenly desperate to keep him talking. "How come you're not laying into Heero?" I asked, rubbing his back gently as I could, feeling the tense muscles coiled there. "I would've thought you'd at least be cold to him, and here you are acting almost friendly!"
He seemed to think on that for a long time. "I'm not a heartless bastard, Hilde," he told me quietly. "This is his first time ever meeting his daughter, whom I'm sure he's never even heard about until recently. I'm not going to make an uncomfortable meeting worse." He lifted his head, looking off into the distance, but I sensed, not really seeing the house. He abruptly chuckled. "Besides, there's plenty of time to smack Heero around later!"
Sighing, I smacked him on the back of the head. "Duo no baka!"
***
After a somewhat tearful reunion (I guess I should say meeting, really), Hilde carried the emotionally exhausted Vicki up the stairs, and I, though equally tired, made my way to the kitchen where I heard the sounds of keys clacking and smelled the delicious aroma of brewing coffee. Too bad I didn't like the stuff. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the smell, however.
Pushing the swinging door open, I entered a spacious, well-lit, cream-colored kitchen. Dark wood paneling ran up half the walls, the rich cream continuing up to the ceiling, splattered with a slightly darker shade of the same color. The floor was tiled, diamond shaped, with grayish-black diamonds in between each individual tile and its partner. The counters were a white marble, the drawers colored the same shade of the wood on the walls. Everything was neat, but with a cluttered, lived-in look.
I spied Duo sitting with one elbow on the kitchen table, forehead cupped in that hand, peering at the screen of a laptop, a steaming cup sitting in a cup holder on the table in front of him, his free arm occasionally tapping at the keyboard. The booth-style table was in front of a set of bay windows, casting Duo in the ethereal glow of the setting sun, bringing out the red highlights in his hair and making it look auburn. Swallowing, I was overcome with the sudden desire to resolve this relationship deal, and strode toward him with every intention of doing that. Reaching the table, I halted in front of it, clearing my throat. "Duo..."
"Nasty characters, ne, Heero? These guys of Mien's? I dunno about you, but I'm not exactly sure I know how - or even want - to try and infiltrate these guys' hideout. I have a pretty heathy survival instinct, you know..." As he babbled on about our current targets, I let loose an almost inaudible sigh and moved over to the coffee pot, finding a mug sitting conveniently next to it. I filled the mug a little over a fourth full of coffee, then moved to the refrigerator and took out the milk, filling the rest of the mug with it. I added a little sugar I found next to the coffee pot and slid in the booth across from Duo, who tensed momentarily before resuming his - I recognized it now - nervous chatter. Cupping the warm cup in front of my face, I sighed again and concluded that Duo really didn't want to talk to me about any thing significant. Running a hand through my jagged bangs, I set the cup down and snatched the laptop away from Duo, ignoring his squall of protest, personal feelings firmly pushed aside and my whole being ready to prepare for my new mission.
Chapter 6
***
October 8, AC 204
For some unaccountable reason I was nervous all day. This was the day Hilde returned with my new partner in this mission, which, by the way, I was liking less and less with every report I read. All of Mien's aides were nasty fellas with rap sheets as long as my braid for a variety of offenses: grand theft auto, breaking and entering, armed robbery, manslaughter, murder, rape... the list went on and on and I wasn't too sure I wanted to be infiltrating and tricking these highly dangerous people. I, for one, felt a little rusty after more than six years since my last big assignment, despite my regular visits to the gym and my Preventers physicals once every six months, which stated that I was in prime physical condition. I hoped my new "partner" knew what he was doing, and tried to convince myself that he was, seeing as how he caught Mien and managed to stay alive while doing so. I was beginning to get a bad feeling about this guy for which Lady Une left me no name.
My continuing nerves caused me to become a little short with Vicki, and, after making her cry for the third time that morning, made every effort to loosen up a bit before I tucked her in for her afternoon nap; after doing so, I headed to the kitchen to be chilled by a few more reports on Mien's aides while waited for Hilde and the new guy to return, having already made up the guest bedroom in the house. I certainly didn't want this new guy to think that a Gundam Pilot wouldn't go into a mission prepared, and I was determined to have everything memorized. Just to show him up.
***
When we got on the shuttle I was nervous; when we touched down on L2 I was terrified; now, on our way to Duo's house, I was beyond petrified. Certainly it would have made several people I know laugh until they had aneurysms and died to know that the "great Heero Yuy" was absolutely shaking in his boots to meet a three-year old little girl and a 24 year-old man I knew for a fact I out-weighed, out-muscled, and out-grew. (Although common sense would dictate that a Japanese man always be shorter than an American one, I hypothesized the vitamins I took during the war made me an uncommonly tall Asian person at 5'10", and Duo's malnourishment as a young teenager caused him to be a shorter-than-average Caucasian at 5'8".)
At 13:00 hours we pulled into the driveway of a huge (at least for L2 standards), moderately-attractive two story brick house. Practically on the verge of passing out, I stumbled fearfully behind Hilde as she strode confidently up to the door, seemingly not bothered by the fact that Duo would rip her limb from limb when he realized who she had brought home to be living with him for the next several months, at least, if not longer. Removing a key from her pocket, Hilde opened the ordinary-looking deep brown door (why I thought it would be anything other than ordinary I don't know) and stepped inside, calling out cheerfully, "Duo! I'm back, and I've brought the guy in to help you on the Mien case."
From the direction of the doorway on the left I heard a mumbling involving something with the word "name," before the sound of a scraping chair was heard and a wonderfully deep, melodic voice was whispering, "Shhh, Hilde! Vicki's sleeping!"
In a daze, I heard Hilde whispering back, "OH! Sorry, Duo, I forgot," before I finally caught a glimpse of my long-ago lover and felt like Wing Zero had decided to plant it's foot in my chest.
Despite his short height, Duo still appeared to fill up a room, with broad shoulders and a thin athletic body I knew he kept in good shape from regular workouts and I knew despite his slender stature weighted in at close to 200 pounds from well-hidden muscles. The braid was actually shorter than I remembered, and I figured having not cut it since he was born, the split ends had to have been getting pretty bad and forced him to chop some of it off. The color was still that rich mahogany brown, with auburn and golden highlights twisting through the braided mass.
When I finally dared bring my eyes up to his face, I disregarded their shocked state and focused in on the color of his eyes, still that unusual purple that haunted my dreams with the look of betrayal that I'd last seen in them. Though Duo didn't have the lash length of say, me (Relena once told me my lashes better are suited to a lady's), they still framed his eyes attractively, the same rich brown as his hair. He'd lost most of the baby fat from the war, his face angled and sharpened into the planes of a man. His high cheekbones made his large eyes stand out even more, and, though dropped in an expression of shock, his lips still looked full and inviting. I remembered well their brilliance when lifted in a smile, but at the moment he looked like he needed to be hooked up to a heart monitor. I uneasily stood where I'd stopped inside the front doorway and waited for what he had to say to be after several years of abandonment and betrayal.
It sounded like he said "I hate being psychic." Did I mention I was confused as well as scared?
***
I could hear Hilde's rather noisy entry into the house, followed by softer footsteps of someone I could tell had been a soldier from their unnaturally soft tread. Nervous, and not just because Hilde had probably woken up Vicki, I stepped into the kitchen doorway and felt my heart stop.
'Damn, I hate being psychic,' I thought to myself, and might have said it out loud from the startled look Heero suddenly sent my way. I made an effort to keep my thoughts to myself this time, 'Ever since I realized no one would give me his name, I feared my new partner would be Heero.' I gave a mental sigh. 'I should've known. Only Heero could infiltrate a complex hierarchy such as Mien's in as little as three years and come out alive. He always was a tough little bastard.'
The man who'd haunted my dreams (nightmares and wet alike), stood inside my front doorway, a faintly scared? nervous? look in those piercingly blue eyes. Ignoring that interesting little detail for the moment, I dropped my eyes to his boots and started a slow travel up. I was mildly annoyed to find he'd somehow managed to gain some height on me, and added that to the list of things I was pissed off at Dr. J for. Though he was dressed conservatively in plain blue jeans and a white T-shirt, I could still see the hint of muscle that he'd always had through the wars and appeared to keep up through peacetime. His shoulders were broad, and for some reason I seemed to be stuck there, almost... afraid to look into his face. Then I mentally smacked myself. 'Shinigami fears nothing!' I swallowed and looked up.
His face was as angular as I remembered: the strong chin, the prominent cheekbones exposed by too little fat in his face, the jutting brow bone, those cute little split ends at the ends of his eyebrows that freakily reminded me of Trieze... I remember when I used to tweak them to annoy him... The brown hair was longer, collar length, and the brown color looked faintly off, like a poor watercolor imitation of his former chocolate brown locks. Finally I shored up my determination and... peeked at his eyes before looking away. They still looked that rich midnight blue you find at sunset right after the sun has set. Often when I moonwatched at night, I looked at the sky, and was reminded of him.
That and the fact that every time I looked into Vicki's eyes I saw his.
Deliberately looking towards the stairs where sounds of Vicki stirring could be heard, I heard myself ask very causally, "I suppose you're wanting to see her?" and patted myself on the back for the cool degree of indifference in my voice that I could tell surprised Heero. I gave a little inward smirk, supposing he had been expecting a temper tantrum full of angry words from me. I wondered how he would react to the milder, mellower Duo Maxwell I was now.
***
I tried to contain my surprise as Duo very nonchalantly asked me about Vicki, and promptly forgot about his tone of voice as the anticipation of finally seeing my daughter hit me. I found myself nodding eagerly and moving into the living room that Duo gestured me into while he brought Vicki down. Nervous (I couldn't seem to get the butterflies out of my stomach), I sat down upon the couch, tensing up when the sound of footfalls on the stairs reached my ears. I held my breath as Duo brought the toddler into the room, settling her carefully on her feet.
She was perfect, and as I studied her I could see the resemblance to both myself and Relena... the texture and color of her hair, the shape of her eyes and face, the naturally proud way she held her head... Unsure, I looked up at Duo.
Looking surprised, then almost... bemused, he knelt next to the child and whispered a few words in her ear, giving her a gentle push in the direction of the couch upon which I sat. I sensed that she wasn't nervous or unsure about my presence, just curious, and her gaze seemed almost knowing as she looked at me. Suddenly breaking into a grin which puffed up her rosy cheeks, she toddled my way, asking all the while, "You're the man in the pictures?"
Abruptly finding myself with an armful of squirming baby that I had no idea what to do with, I once again turned helplessly to Duo.
Looking uneasy, he answered my unspoken question. "She's seen pictures of you... and news reports and things that I've taped... I would never keep your existence from your daughter, Heero," he spoke softly. "She knows who you are."
I was unexpectedly smacked in the cheek by an inquisitive hand. "'e looks jus' like the pictures!" she said to Duo, hands still roaming over my face, pulling at my hair until I gave a little wince. My expression of shock - and pain - must have registered, because Duo just chuckled softly and said, "I'll leave you two alone," closing the door on myself and my daughter for the first time.
***
Duo walked out of the living room, shutting the door calmly behind him, before moving over and hitting the wall next to the door with a muffled thud, sliding down the wall to land with a weary groan on the floor, hands covering his face. I knelt beside him and hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder. "Duo? Are you okay?"
From inside his arms came a muffled "no." He offered nothing further.
Kneeling helplessly next to him, I was suddenly desperate to keep him talking. "How come you're not laying into Heero?" I asked, rubbing his back gently as I could, feeling the tense muscles coiled there. "I would've thought you'd at least be cold to him, and here you are acting almost friendly!"
He seemed to think on that for a long time. "I'm not a heartless bastard, Hilde," he told me quietly. "This is his first time ever meeting his daughter, whom I'm sure he's never even heard about until recently. I'm not going to make an uncomfortable meeting worse." He lifted his head, looking off into the distance, but I sensed, not really seeing the house. He abruptly chuckled. "Besides, there's plenty of time to smack Heero around later!"
Sighing, I smacked him on the back of the head. "Duo no baka!"
***
After a somewhat tearful reunion (I guess I should say meeting, really), Hilde carried the emotionally exhausted Vicki up the stairs, and I, though equally tired, made my way to the kitchen where I heard the sounds of keys clacking and smelled the delicious aroma of brewing coffee. Too bad I didn't like the stuff. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the smell, however.
Pushing the swinging door open, I entered a spacious, well-lit, cream-colored kitchen. Dark wood paneling ran up half the walls, the rich cream continuing up to the ceiling, splattered with a slightly darker shade of the same color. The floor was tiled, diamond shaped, with grayish-black diamonds in between each individual tile and its partner. The counters were a white marble, the drawers colored the same shade of the wood on the walls. Everything was neat, but with a cluttered, lived-in look.
I spied Duo sitting with one elbow on the kitchen table, forehead cupped in that hand, peering at the screen of a laptop, a steaming cup sitting in a cup holder on the table in front of him, his free arm occasionally tapping at the keyboard. The booth-style table was in front of a set of bay windows, casting Duo in the ethereal glow of the setting sun, bringing out the red highlights in his hair and making it look auburn. Swallowing, I was overcome with the sudden desire to resolve this relationship deal, and strode toward him with every intention of doing that. Reaching the table, I halted in front of it, clearing my throat. "Duo..."
"Nasty characters, ne, Heero? These guys of Mien's? I dunno about you, but I'm not exactly sure I know how - or even want - to try and infiltrate these guys' hideout. I have a pretty heathy survival instinct, you know..." As he babbled on about our current targets, I let loose an almost inaudible sigh and moved over to the coffee pot, finding a mug sitting conveniently next to it. I filled the mug a little over a fourth full of coffee, then moved to the refrigerator and took out the milk, filling the rest of the mug with it. I added a little sugar I found next to the coffee pot and slid in the booth across from Duo, who tensed momentarily before resuming his - I recognized it now - nervous chatter. Cupping the warm cup in front of my face, I sighed again and concluded that Duo really didn't want to talk to me about any thing significant. Running a hand through my jagged bangs, I set the cup down and snatched the laptop away from Duo, ignoring his squall of protest, personal feelings firmly pushed aside and my whole being ready to prepare for my new mission.