Starting Over Again
Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I probably won't... ever.... *sniff*
Warnings: future 1x2 and already established 3x4
Author Notes: Ok so I had this done earlier but hurricane Isabelle knocked out my power for awhile and then I wrote a whole bunch more so... yeah the chapters longer now. So Isabelle got me out of school and made me more productive. I'm just glad that not TOO many people got hurt.
On another note I'm really sorry if my characters seem really out of character. This was my first fic on the net and I'll try to do better on other ones.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
*****
The next day flew by quickly for Duo in a blur of political meetings, military checks of colonies, and flying in his assigned suit from one colony to the next. Soon enough, Duo found himself checked into a colony motel for the night, courtesy of Preventers, in a room with Wufei and one other man from their group of six.
It wasn't surprising when minutes later he found himself in one of the two single beds having barely gotten out of having to sleep on the makeshift bed from the pullout couch. He knew it wouldn't be that hard to go to sleep on any of the beds, Duo had had a long day, but he really didn't prefer those lumpy, cold pull-out beds if he could have one of the warm, soft motel beds. Still though, he was finding it hard to drift off when thoughts were still streaming through his head.
The day had been long, yes, but it had also been exciting. Really, it had been a long time since Duo had even been off earth and a much longer time since he had been in a suit. Sure it had brought back some bad memories but all-in-all it had been a fun day.
Also, though, he had began to have thoughts of Heero. Duo wondered where he was and what he was doing. Was Heero already in bed like himself? Had his workday went well and was he angry with Duo for leaving without driving together like they did the first day?
These were all normal thoughts for a good friend to think, Duo told himself. For some reason Duo felt he now had to monitor his thoughts, to make sure that they didn't go array like the other day. Array into thoughts that were definitely NOT normal thoughts for a friend to have...
Like wondering if Heero had met an attractive guy, or girl for that matter, today. If anyone had tried to flirt with him. If Heero had tried to flirt with anyone! If... //STOP!// He told himself mentally when he realized he was starting to get jealous of other people that he didn't even know over a situation that wasn't happening. Of course the situation wasn't happening he rationalized with himself. First of all, Heero would never voluntarily flirt with anyone, especially someone he just met. Second of all, if anyone did try to flirt with Heero he either wouldn't notice or he would try to hurt the person. Third... Hold on, since when did he get jealous over Heero!
*****
Heero groggily opened his eyes to the bright light prying into his room through the slits in his blinds. Wait, bright light? Heero chanced a glance at his alarm clock. "Shit! I woke up late," he whispered angrily into the morning air. Heero now had ten minutes before he was expected to be at work.
It took him a little over 15 minutes just to drive to headquarters!
Damn! This was so unlike him! He hastily jumped out of bed and into some new clothes. Food and a shower would have to wait, he thought as he hurriedly ran his toothbrush over his teeth and straightened his tie in the mirror.
The young man now quickly made his way out the door to his car cranking it on impatiently. He began to feel more relief as he pulled out of the drive-way and made his way towards the exit of the apartment complexes. At least he would only be ten or twenty minutes late. It wasn't perfect but it was better than...
"A TRAFFIC JAM!!!!!" Heero shouted into the air.
*****
Duo hummed quietly to himself while changing into his Preventer uniform. It was some weird tune he'd heard over at Quatre's that had decided now was an appropriate time to lodge itself in Duo's brain and play on continuous repeat.
Duo continued to hum as he made his way out of the small motel bathroom and into a nearby chair. "'Fei bathroom's all yours!" Duo loudly declared while promptly pulling his foot up to finish tying his shoe.
By the time Duo had finished rebraiding his hair all three men were ready to leave for a day of work.
*****
Heero finally got into work near forty-five minutes late and had not even sat down when Une called him into her office. Heero was only mildly surprised when he saw Quatre standing beside her desk. He had done his research. Preventers had worked with Winner Enterprises before, not often, but since Quatre sometimes sponsored different activities and he was one of the five gundam pilots, Preventers worked with him more generously than some of the other companies.
Une looked up and met Heero's eyes, "I have a new assignment for you that Quatre, here, has brought to my attention." She slid a manilla-colored folder across her desk to Heero, "I assume you won't mind doing computer-based assignments like this one here in the future? You are the best for the job."
Heero shook his head and looked over the contents of his first assignment as an employee of Preventers. "I don't mind but I will need-"
"Oh, yes, here's the disk you will need," Une cut Heero off and handed him a disk from her top drawer. "Now, Quatre, do you have anything to add?"
"Nothing business. If you don't mind Heero," Quatre started now directing his attention to Heero, "we could eat lunch together later on since I'm already over here. I haven't talked to you for awhile now."
Heero nodded.
"Good then!" Quatre clasped his hands together, "When's lunch break, around 12:15? Well then, I know a restaurant right up the street that's said to be good!"
"If that's settled, we'll go on to the next piece of business," Une began, "Heero, you were late? On the third day. Seems unlike you."
Heero sighed out loud and ran his hand through his unruly hair while Quatre quietly laughed at Heero's exasperated look.
"Normally there would be consequences for this but I presume that you have a good reason and won't let it happen again. I'll let you off the hook this time, try not to let it happen again."
"Yes, I won't," Heero answered and nodded an informal good-bye to Quatre, turning around, folder and disk in his right hand and left the office.
*****
This day was passing almost as quickly as the day before and Duo was beginning to question if he should ask for more assignments like this. He liked the pace. Wufei assured him that they almost always found some underhand scheme or something of the sort. But that's what assignments like this were for to catch uprisings in their early stages and put a stop to them. The group he was in didn't even have to stop them, just had to report them so that Preventers could immediately get a group out there to stop it. The were all one big team.
The only other thing he had to concentrate on was teaching the new recruits how to fly their suits correctly (which Duo thought was boring somewhat, he had caught on MUCH faster), what, where, how and when to check matters on assignments such as this (which Duo was learning himself), and how to watch their backs if they were ever caught in a bad situation (which Duo had known for years.)
All in all one of the only downfalls of requesting more field jobs was that he would not see his friends as often. // Correction. // His mind supplied. //I won't see HEERO that often. I don't see my friends too often anyway. // Not being able to see Heero shouldn't bother him. He hadn't seen Heero for a year and by the end he didn't miss him. He saw his other friends only once or twice every few weeks or months and he didn't miss them. Heero should be no different.
Right?
Then why was it that every time he thought about being on missions similar to this one most of the time that his mind brought up a convenient picture of Heero's face. Why did he feel like he'd miss the boy so much? That wasn't natural it seemed, but perhaps it was because Heero was quickly becoming his best friend again? // I could always call him though. // He supplied. But, no, that didn't work. He wanted Heero around him, Duo realized. That surprised him. Why would he...
"...Maxwell! DUO!" A strong voice demanded.
"What?!" Duo exclaimed suddenly and jumped out of his seat.
"Gosh, Maxwell, what world have you been in? I've been calling you forever."
"Sorry," was all Duo had to offer, "what did you want, 'Fei?"
"I wanted you to hurry up and finish that burger. We have twenty minutes until we have to meet the mayor and then Dave, Jerry and you are supposed to check out that new lead I got on the bomb threat two days ago, remember? I think we almost got the place pinned down see all you'll have to do is..."
Duo blocked out Wufei's voice while he finished eating. He had already heard what he was supposed to do THREE TIMES. Soon, the two young men hurried off to the mayor's building while the four others stayed back to relax before their afternoon excursion.
*****
It seemed to Heero that he had no sooner put the disk in and began working when lunch break rolled around. Quatre strolled to the front of his desk, keys clamped firmly in hand, just as planned.
They rode to the new restaurant in a comfortable silence. The waiter seated them quickly, even though it was their busy hour, and Heero was surprised to notice that he was quite hungry. He hadn't had much dinner the night before and had skipped breakfast this morning. Well, at least he would be eating now. If it wasn't for Quatre he would have probably ate straight through break.
After they had finished ordering their food Quatre finally broke the silence that had set in again. "So, Heero, how is everything going with you? I've only been able to talk to you a few times since you came back, you know."
"I've been fine." Heero responded.
Quatre smiled at Heero's short answer. He knew that was just the way he communicated with other people. Well everyone other than duo. Speaking of Duo... "So how is everything going on with you and Duo? Is sharing an apartment okay?"
A strange sort of light appeared in Heero's eyes at Duo's name. Then his expression fell. "I have my own room now. But... I don't know what's going on with Duo, I think he was mad about something when he left."
Quatre frowned, "Left? Oh, you mean that assignment Une was talking about."
Both boys fell silent as they accepted their food from their waiter and began eating. In the end, Quatre was the one to pick up the conversation again.
"Anyways, Heero, are you sure you didn't misinterpret what Duo was feeling? Sometimes you are not the absolute best at understanding others emotions." Quatre offered with a kind smile.
Heero looked out a nearby window for awhile as he continued to eat. Finally he answered, " I don't know... he said he was sorry but I don't know for what or even what exactly was happening."
Quatre grinned to himself. Heero was keeping his monotone and his straight face but it was obvious he was confused. He took another bite of the pasta he had ordered and chewed thoughtfully, he didn't know what exactly to tell Heero he hadn't had too much experience with dealing with him outside the war. Really he should let it work itself out. He decided to do just that. "I'm sure everything will work out Heero, even if Duo is mad at you I'm sure it's not anything too bad. Just apologize to him, Duo's kind he'll understand. He's probably not even mad though, don't get to worked up about it.
"Yeah..." Heero was quickly finishing off the soup he had ordered. "Quatre?" Heero started suddenly after a few moments.
"What Heero?"
"Well, I was wondering. Do you think that..."
Heero trailed off and Quatre smiled encouragingly, "Go ahead Heero, I'm listening."
Heero hesitated a moment, then started again with a bit of urgency sounding in his voice, "Do you think if I apologized to Duo and tried really hard to show him he can trust me again that maybe... maybe" Heero had said all of that in one breath it seemed and suddenly his voice dropped almost to a whisper and he spoke slower, "maybe he could... love me again?"
-tbc
****************
Author Notes: Ooops I think I definitely made Heero way OOC. Gomen! Anyways, thank you for reading, and thank you ALL of my reviewers you make me SO happy.
Please, please review and tell me what you did and didn't like about this chapter or my whole story it's all helpful and it all makes me happy. I tried to make this chapter longer and I tried to get it out faster and I'm going to try and get the next one out fast too. Thankies! Bye bye!
Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I probably won't... ever.... *sniff*
Warnings: future 1x2 and already established 3x4
Author Notes: Ok so I had this done earlier but hurricane Isabelle knocked out my power for awhile and then I wrote a whole bunch more so... yeah the chapters longer now. So Isabelle got me out of school and made me more productive. I'm just glad that not TOO many people got hurt.
On another note I'm really sorry if my characters seem really out of character. This was my first fic on the net and I'll try to do better on other ones.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
*****
The next day flew by quickly for Duo in a blur of political meetings, military checks of colonies, and flying in his assigned suit from one colony to the next. Soon enough, Duo found himself checked into a colony motel for the night, courtesy of Preventers, in a room with Wufei and one other man from their group of six.
It wasn't surprising when minutes later he found himself in one of the two single beds having barely gotten out of having to sleep on the makeshift bed from the pullout couch. He knew it wouldn't be that hard to go to sleep on any of the beds, Duo had had a long day, but he really didn't prefer those lumpy, cold pull-out beds if he could have one of the warm, soft motel beds. Still though, he was finding it hard to drift off when thoughts were still streaming through his head.
The day had been long, yes, but it had also been exciting. Really, it had been a long time since Duo had even been off earth and a much longer time since he had been in a suit. Sure it had brought back some bad memories but all-in-all it had been a fun day.
Also, though, he had began to have thoughts of Heero. Duo wondered where he was and what he was doing. Was Heero already in bed like himself? Had his workday went well and was he angry with Duo for leaving without driving together like they did the first day?
These were all normal thoughts for a good friend to think, Duo told himself. For some reason Duo felt he now had to monitor his thoughts, to make sure that they didn't go array like the other day. Array into thoughts that were definitely NOT normal thoughts for a friend to have...
Like wondering if Heero had met an attractive guy, or girl for that matter, today. If anyone had tried to flirt with him. If Heero had tried to flirt with anyone! If... //STOP!// He told himself mentally when he realized he was starting to get jealous of other people that he didn't even know over a situation that wasn't happening. Of course the situation wasn't happening he rationalized with himself. First of all, Heero would never voluntarily flirt with anyone, especially someone he just met. Second of all, if anyone did try to flirt with Heero he either wouldn't notice or he would try to hurt the person. Third... Hold on, since when did he get jealous over Heero!
*****
Heero groggily opened his eyes to the bright light prying into his room through the slits in his blinds. Wait, bright light? Heero chanced a glance at his alarm clock. "Shit! I woke up late," he whispered angrily into the morning air. Heero now had ten minutes before he was expected to be at work.
It took him a little over 15 minutes just to drive to headquarters!
Damn! This was so unlike him! He hastily jumped out of bed and into some new clothes. Food and a shower would have to wait, he thought as he hurriedly ran his toothbrush over his teeth and straightened his tie in the mirror.
The young man now quickly made his way out the door to his car cranking it on impatiently. He began to feel more relief as he pulled out of the drive-way and made his way towards the exit of the apartment complexes. At least he would only be ten or twenty minutes late. It wasn't perfect but it was better than...
"A TRAFFIC JAM!!!!!" Heero shouted into the air.
*****
Duo hummed quietly to himself while changing into his Preventer uniform. It was some weird tune he'd heard over at Quatre's that had decided now was an appropriate time to lodge itself in Duo's brain and play on continuous repeat.
Duo continued to hum as he made his way out of the small motel bathroom and into a nearby chair. "'Fei bathroom's all yours!" Duo loudly declared while promptly pulling his foot up to finish tying his shoe.
By the time Duo had finished rebraiding his hair all three men were ready to leave for a day of work.
*****
Heero finally got into work near forty-five minutes late and had not even sat down when Une called him into her office. Heero was only mildly surprised when he saw Quatre standing beside her desk. He had done his research. Preventers had worked with Winner Enterprises before, not often, but since Quatre sometimes sponsored different activities and he was one of the five gundam pilots, Preventers worked with him more generously than some of the other companies.
Une looked up and met Heero's eyes, "I have a new assignment for you that Quatre, here, has brought to my attention." She slid a manilla-colored folder across her desk to Heero, "I assume you won't mind doing computer-based assignments like this one here in the future? You are the best for the job."
Heero shook his head and looked over the contents of his first assignment as an employee of Preventers. "I don't mind but I will need-"
"Oh, yes, here's the disk you will need," Une cut Heero off and handed him a disk from her top drawer. "Now, Quatre, do you have anything to add?"
"Nothing business. If you don't mind Heero," Quatre started now directing his attention to Heero, "we could eat lunch together later on since I'm already over here. I haven't talked to you for awhile now."
Heero nodded.
"Good then!" Quatre clasped his hands together, "When's lunch break, around 12:15? Well then, I know a restaurant right up the street that's said to be good!"
"If that's settled, we'll go on to the next piece of business," Une began, "Heero, you were late? On the third day. Seems unlike you."
Heero sighed out loud and ran his hand through his unruly hair while Quatre quietly laughed at Heero's exasperated look.
"Normally there would be consequences for this but I presume that you have a good reason and won't let it happen again. I'll let you off the hook this time, try not to let it happen again."
"Yes, I won't," Heero answered and nodded an informal good-bye to Quatre, turning around, folder and disk in his right hand and left the office.
*****
This day was passing almost as quickly as the day before and Duo was beginning to question if he should ask for more assignments like this. He liked the pace. Wufei assured him that they almost always found some underhand scheme or something of the sort. But that's what assignments like this were for to catch uprisings in their early stages and put a stop to them. The group he was in didn't even have to stop them, just had to report them so that Preventers could immediately get a group out there to stop it. The were all one big team.
The only other thing he had to concentrate on was teaching the new recruits how to fly their suits correctly (which Duo thought was boring somewhat, he had caught on MUCH faster), what, where, how and when to check matters on assignments such as this (which Duo was learning himself), and how to watch their backs if they were ever caught in a bad situation (which Duo had known for years.)
All in all one of the only downfalls of requesting more field jobs was that he would not see his friends as often. // Correction. // His mind supplied. //I won't see HEERO that often. I don't see my friends too often anyway. // Not being able to see Heero shouldn't bother him. He hadn't seen Heero for a year and by the end he didn't miss him. He saw his other friends only once or twice every few weeks or months and he didn't miss them. Heero should be no different.
Right?
Then why was it that every time he thought about being on missions similar to this one most of the time that his mind brought up a convenient picture of Heero's face. Why did he feel like he'd miss the boy so much? That wasn't natural it seemed, but perhaps it was because Heero was quickly becoming his best friend again? // I could always call him though. // He supplied. But, no, that didn't work. He wanted Heero around him, Duo realized. That surprised him. Why would he...
"...Maxwell! DUO!" A strong voice demanded.
"What?!" Duo exclaimed suddenly and jumped out of his seat.
"Gosh, Maxwell, what world have you been in? I've been calling you forever."
"Sorry," was all Duo had to offer, "what did you want, 'Fei?"
"I wanted you to hurry up and finish that burger. We have twenty minutes until we have to meet the mayor and then Dave, Jerry and you are supposed to check out that new lead I got on the bomb threat two days ago, remember? I think we almost got the place pinned down see all you'll have to do is..."
Duo blocked out Wufei's voice while he finished eating. He had already heard what he was supposed to do THREE TIMES. Soon, the two young men hurried off to the mayor's building while the four others stayed back to relax before their afternoon excursion.
*****
It seemed to Heero that he had no sooner put the disk in and began working when lunch break rolled around. Quatre strolled to the front of his desk, keys clamped firmly in hand, just as planned.
They rode to the new restaurant in a comfortable silence. The waiter seated them quickly, even though it was their busy hour, and Heero was surprised to notice that he was quite hungry. He hadn't had much dinner the night before and had skipped breakfast this morning. Well, at least he would be eating now. If it wasn't for Quatre he would have probably ate straight through break.
After they had finished ordering their food Quatre finally broke the silence that had set in again. "So, Heero, how is everything going with you? I've only been able to talk to you a few times since you came back, you know."
"I've been fine." Heero responded.
Quatre smiled at Heero's short answer. He knew that was just the way he communicated with other people. Well everyone other than duo. Speaking of Duo... "So how is everything going on with you and Duo? Is sharing an apartment okay?"
A strange sort of light appeared in Heero's eyes at Duo's name. Then his expression fell. "I have my own room now. But... I don't know what's going on with Duo, I think he was mad about something when he left."
Quatre frowned, "Left? Oh, you mean that assignment Une was talking about."
Both boys fell silent as they accepted their food from their waiter and began eating. In the end, Quatre was the one to pick up the conversation again.
"Anyways, Heero, are you sure you didn't misinterpret what Duo was feeling? Sometimes you are not the absolute best at understanding others emotions." Quatre offered with a kind smile.
Heero looked out a nearby window for awhile as he continued to eat. Finally he answered, " I don't know... he said he was sorry but I don't know for what or even what exactly was happening."
Quatre grinned to himself. Heero was keeping his monotone and his straight face but it was obvious he was confused. He took another bite of the pasta he had ordered and chewed thoughtfully, he didn't know what exactly to tell Heero he hadn't had too much experience with dealing with him outside the war. Really he should let it work itself out. He decided to do just that. "I'm sure everything will work out Heero, even if Duo is mad at you I'm sure it's not anything too bad. Just apologize to him, Duo's kind he'll understand. He's probably not even mad though, don't get to worked up about it.
"Yeah..." Heero was quickly finishing off the soup he had ordered. "Quatre?" Heero started suddenly after a few moments.
"What Heero?"
"Well, I was wondering. Do you think that..."
Heero trailed off and Quatre smiled encouragingly, "Go ahead Heero, I'm listening."
Heero hesitated a moment, then started again with a bit of urgency sounding in his voice, "Do you think if I apologized to Duo and tried really hard to show him he can trust me again that maybe... maybe" Heero had said all of that in one breath it seemed and suddenly his voice dropped almost to a whisper and he spoke slower, "maybe he could... love me again?"
-tbc
****************
Author Notes: Ooops I think I definitely made Heero way OOC. Gomen! Anyways, thank you for reading, and thank you ALL of my reviewers you make me SO happy.
Please, please review and tell me what you did and didn't like about this chapter or my whole story it's all helpful and it all makes me happy. I tried to make this chapter longer and I tried to get it out faster and I'm going to try and get the next one out fast too. Thankies! Bye bye!