Starting Over Again
Chapter 13
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I probably won't... ever... *sniff*
Warnings: future 1x2x1 and established 3x4x3
Author Notes: Well I'm getting this chapter out about as quickly as I got the last one out because that seemed to work pretty well but I got hit with a bad 'bout of writer's block so if this is terrible blame it on that.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
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There was a small gasp from Quatre's side of the table followed by a warm, encouraging smile sent Heero's way. Now he knew what he had thought all along: Both boys had suffered after the break up. Quatre, himself, had only seen Duo's mourning over his heart break and had felt much worse for the more emotional teen than he had for Heero. But now that Heero had spoke, had asked for love, which all-in-all was a BIG step for him, it confirmed it. It was really the tone in his voice that convinced him the most.
Heero had hurt too.
But now he didn't know what to say to his blue-eyed friend. Sure Trowa and he had talked about Duo and Heero getting back together; he had even commented on how they were cute together and made such a good couple. The blond was truly perplexed on what to do though. Would Duo come around, he was pretty stubborn, but was he stubborn enough for love?
After a long pause, Quatre tried his best to reply with what he hoped was a suitable answer. "I'm not sure totally. I actually haven't talked to Duo in a few good weeks. I don't know what his feelings towards you are right now. I do know that when you left for J's Duo was upset so...," Quatre trailed off hesitantly. A more hopeful tint to his voice the next time he began speaking, "Maybe he's already started to love you again." 'Or maybe,' thought Quatre, 'he never really stopped.'
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Duo walked a different way back to their hotel than his comrades silently angry. He kicked a nearby pebble as far as he could ahead of him into the night. Somehow, in a way unknown to Duo, Dave twisted his ankle while infiltrating the suspect's house.
He made such a loud noise about it that within seconds the suspect and the three men he was meeting with fled. Wufei and his team of two barely had time to nab the guy and two of his workers. The other man got away.
The logical side of his mind argued with him that since they caught him, now he would be off to trial and not blowing up buildings. The other part of him debated back that since the operation ended so quickly they hardly had any information to convict the guy and soon he'd be out on probation. Plus, they might have to go home early because of Dave's 'injury'. Duo smirked as he came up to the pebble again under the streetlight and kicked it into the upcoming hotels' brick wall.
How on earth do you twist your ankle while walking?
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Heero's day had gone well so far. He had gotten up extra early, ate his breakfast, and got ready in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, he was just sitting down in his chair to start working again when two young women standing beside the coffee machine caught his attention. It wasn't actually them that caught his attention it was their conversation. They had mentioned Wufei. 'Duo was with him'. Heero listened closer.
"So you do know the Wufei guy, right?" The one girl asked while the other girl nodded vigorously.
"Well I heard that someone in his group got hurt yesterday. Oh... I hope it's not Wufei. He's always been a cutie!"
The other girl smiled and laughed as the walked off. "Gosh, Julie, he doesn't even know you exist! Give it up!"
"No, but see the other day he..."
Heero quit listening to their mindless chatter and looked down to his folded hands and then his blank computer screen. 'Someone had been hurt? It can't be that bad, right? I didn't gather that it was a large assignment. Was it Duo? No, No... Duo was too good to get hurt on any mission they could throw at him during this peace. Of course, it had been a long time since he fought. Maybe...' Heero's thoughts began to go a million miles per minute and he had to will them to stop. Stop worrying, It wasn't Duo.
Or was it?
Heero shook his head as if to shake the thoughts out and got to work.
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Duo rolled his eyes again for the fifth time that hour while throwing his last newly-bought shirt into a grocery bag.
"Why do we have to go 'Fei? It's a damn ankle, and it's not hurt that bad."
"Stop whining like a baby, Maxwell," was the Chinese pilot's curt reply. Taking pity on the braided teen he continued, "It's not like back in the war anymore. We can leave for a twisted ankle. The boy is new. We will leave for a twisted ankle."
"But the whole group, for one guy. It's stupid." Duo sat on the bed, waiting for Wufei to finish getting his stuff together.
"We were planning on leaving tomorrow at one anyways... we've covered most everything. Stop whining!"
"Yeah, whatever, 'Fei. I guess it'll be good to get home anyways, right? Even if we've only been gone three days it seems like much longer."
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Heero sat in the corner of the couch flipping through some of his old picture books. It had took him forever to even get books for the photos. He didn't get them until he had too many to store in a few plastic bags. But still, he wasn't a real creative person, they were all the same and very plain. A light brown cover with the word 'photos' printed on the front.
He flipped the page and found one of him and Duo on the day they moved into their new apartment. That had been soon after they got together. Duo had moved since then. A small smile graced his face at the memory. He had a very stern look in the picture but he knew he had been happy even then. 'Will I ever have any of that back? The happiness that came just from being loved by Duo?'
Heero moved on and looked over the rest of the page pulling up more memories of the braided teen. He slowly flipped the page when a loud audible click of the door resounded through the apartment living room. He silently, quickly closed the book and stood, ready for an intruder.
He was taken completely off-guard to see the boy he was just thinking about. Duo stood there silhouetted against the bright street lights. Heero had the sudden urge to run over and hug him but he settled for a surprised, "Duo!"
Duo took a few steps forward and shut the door. He turned back around and smiled, "Yep, I'm home!"
Without even thinking about it Heero let out a sigh that did not go unnoticed by Duo. "So your not hurt," Heero whispered under his breath.
Hm? What did you say?" Duo asked while walking into the room, and taking a seat on the couch, not noticing the pictures. Currently his mind was on something else: He had promised to talk about why he'd avoided Heero if Heero wanted to. He didn't know what to say.
Thankfully, for awhile, Heero did not ask. He was more intent on how Duo's first military assignment in over two years had went. Duo was happy to oblige to this conversation and eagerly told him most of the important details and also even went into a small talk about how foolish it was of Preventers to send back a whole team for one man.
Personally, Heero didn't mind. He had missed Duo. Soon after, though, there was a silence that made it seem like the very air itself was pushing the boys to think of something to say.
Finally, Heero pulled a wrinkled post-it note out of his pocket and smoothed it out with his thumb. He silently looked up at the ceiling for a brief second. This had been on his mind and he wanted to get it off but... he was never good at starting conversations. Too bad, there is always a time to learn and it seemed to him like he might have to do a lot of talking in the future if he ever wanted Duo back. Might as well start now.
"Duo, I know you said you were sorry on this but I don't know for what. And I was just wondering if you were mad at me that day you left?"
Duo shook his head. He had figured Heero would misunderstand. "Naw. I said sorry for avoiding you and leaving the room abruptly without a reason." Duo looked away from Heero's blue eyes to concentrate on the carpet instead. "I didn't want to lose your trust. I didn't want to lose you as a friend. The reason, though, it seems sort of trivial now." Duo sought frantically for a way to speak the truth without spitting out that he had wanted to cuddle and kiss the boy that was sitting mere feet away from him now. He didn't know how that would go over and he really didn't want to find out. Plus, admitting it out loud would only make it more final and he didn't want that. For a little while he could still deny it. "It was just... some old memories and emotions got back to me and I had to get away for awhile. And the next morning, I don't know, I just didn't want to talk about it so..."
Heero nodded once he realized Duo was finished before noticing that Duo was still staring at the floor and couldn't see him. He walked over and pulled Duo's eyes up to meet his own. "It's fine. If that's really all it was then I just won't talk about-"
"NO!" Duo exclaimed suddenly jumping up so that Heero had to take a step back. "That's exactly what I don't want Heero... That's why I said I was sorry. I want you to talk to me okay? About anything." Heero nodded slowly at this outburst. It seemed Duo was taking this all very seriously.
"Good." Duo let out a shaky breath. Then he promptly fell back on to the couch and Heero sat down beside him. For a few long seconds a silence ensued until Duo happened to observe on of Heero's many photo books on the opposite sofa.
"Ooh! One of your old photo albums right?!" Duo exclaimed while jerking it up and plopping back down next to Heero. Duo's mood took a sudden turn while he opened it up and started flipping through the pictures. "I still can't believe you saved these!"
Heero simply shrugged and watched quietly as Duo flipped threw the pages and made little comments here and there. When Duo got to a new page he scooted over till he was up against the other boy's leg on the pretense of wanting to see the pictures too. Suddenly Duo faced Heero, "Why do you have this out anyways?"
Heero shrugged again. He looked off to the right a bit then back to Duo. "I thought that, well that Dave guy how he got hurt, I thought that you had got hurt. I heard some people talking in the office that someone had got hurt and I just didn't know if it was you even though I was pretty sure it wasn't. I sort of started missing you after thinking about it and I just wanted to see you so..." Heero trailed off and then met Duo's eyes again.
Duo sat still for a second then smiled. "I missed you too, Heero! I suppose it was good that I came back so that you didn't worry for too long, right?"
Heero nodded again. Then looked down to see a certain picture. One of the ones from a few days before he left. He looked at his hands and Duo continued flipping through the pictures with smiling and pointing out random ones.
Heero's mind was on something else. 'I need to apologize. I even told Quatre that. I don't know why I didn't do it in the first place.' He took in a small breath of air. This would also be fairly new. Apologizing.
"Hey Duo?" He asked hesitantly.
"Hm?" Duo looked up and smiled again, "Whatcha want?"
"I wanted to say that... I'm sorry." Duo's face showed obvious confusion and Heero went on, "I'm sorry that I left you so abruptly and that I hurt you. I know I did. I should... should have never done that. It was stupid of me and terrible for both of us. I really am sorry for
everything."
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Please review and tell me what you think. I loved all my reviews for the last chapter and that is what spurred me on to write this one so quickly. Thank you all my reviewers so much.
Chapter 13
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I probably won't... ever... *sniff*
Warnings: future 1x2x1 and established 3x4x3
Author Notes: Well I'm getting this chapter out about as quickly as I got the last one out because that seemed to work pretty well but I got hit with a bad 'bout of writer's block so if this is terrible blame it on that.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There was a small gasp from Quatre's side of the table followed by a warm, encouraging smile sent Heero's way. Now he knew what he had thought all along: Both boys had suffered after the break up. Quatre, himself, had only seen Duo's mourning over his heart break and had felt much worse for the more emotional teen than he had for Heero. But now that Heero had spoke, had asked for love, which all-in-all was a BIG step for him, it confirmed it. It was really the tone in his voice that convinced him the most.
Heero had hurt too.
But now he didn't know what to say to his blue-eyed friend. Sure Trowa and he had talked about Duo and Heero getting back together; he had even commented on how they were cute together and made such a good couple. The blond was truly perplexed on what to do though. Would Duo come around, he was pretty stubborn, but was he stubborn enough for love?
After a long pause, Quatre tried his best to reply with what he hoped was a suitable answer. "I'm not sure totally. I actually haven't talked to Duo in a few good weeks. I don't know what his feelings towards you are right now. I do know that when you left for J's Duo was upset so...," Quatre trailed off hesitantly. A more hopeful tint to his voice the next time he began speaking, "Maybe he's already started to love you again." 'Or maybe,' thought Quatre, 'he never really stopped.'
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Duo walked a different way back to their hotel than his comrades silently angry. He kicked a nearby pebble as far as he could ahead of him into the night. Somehow, in a way unknown to Duo, Dave twisted his ankle while infiltrating the suspect's house.
He made such a loud noise about it that within seconds the suspect and the three men he was meeting with fled. Wufei and his team of two barely had time to nab the guy and two of his workers. The other man got away.
The logical side of his mind argued with him that since they caught him, now he would be off to trial and not blowing up buildings. The other part of him debated back that since the operation ended so quickly they hardly had any information to convict the guy and soon he'd be out on probation. Plus, they might have to go home early because of Dave's 'injury'. Duo smirked as he came up to the pebble again under the streetlight and kicked it into the upcoming hotels' brick wall.
How on earth do you twist your ankle while walking?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Heero's day had gone well so far. He had gotten up extra early, ate his breakfast, and got ready in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, he was just sitting down in his chair to start working again when two young women standing beside the coffee machine caught his attention. It wasn't actually them that caught his attention it was their conversation. They had mentioned Wufei. 'Duo was with him'. Heero listened closer.
"So you do know the Wufei guy, right?" The one girl asked while the other girl nodded vigorously.
"Well I heard that someone in his group got hurt yesterday. Oh... I hope it's not Wufei. He's always been a cutie!"
The other girl smiled and laughed as the walked off. "Gosh, Julie, he doesn't even know you exist! Give it up!"
"No, but see the other day he..."
Heero quit listening to their mindless chatter and looked down to his folded hands and then his blank computer screen. 'Someone had been hurt? It can't be that bad, right? I didn't gather that it was a large assignment. Was it Duo? No, No... Duo was too good to get hurt on any mission they could throw at him during this peace. Of course, it had been a long time since he fought. Maybe...' Heero's thoughts began to go a million miles per minute and he had to will them to stop. Stop worrying, It wasn't Duo.
Or was it?
Heero shook his head as if to shake the thoughts out and got to work.
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Duo rolled his eyes again for the fifth time that hour while throwing his last newly-bought shirt into a grocery bag.
"Why do we have to go 'Fei? It's a damn ankle, and it's not hurt that bad."
"Stop whining like a baby, Maxwell," was the Chinese pilot's curt reply. Taking pity on the braided teen he continued, "It's not like back in the war anymore. We can leave for a twisted ankle. The boy is new. We will leave for a twisted ankle."
"But the whole group, for one guy. It's stupid." Duo sat on the bed, waiting for Wufei to finish getting his stuff together.
"We were planning on leaving tomorrow at one anyways... we've covered most everything. Stop whining!"
"Yeah, whatever, 'Fei. I guess it'll be good to get home anyways, right? Even if we've only been gone three days it seems like much longer."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Heero sat in the corner of the couch flipping through some of his old picture books. It had took him forever to even get books for the photos. He didn't get them until he had too many to store in a few plastic bags. But still, he wasn't a real creative person, they were all the same and very plain. A light brown cover with the word 'photos' printed on the front.
He flipped the page and found one of him and Duo on the day they moved into their new apartment. That had been soon after they got together. Duo had moved since then. A small smile graced his face at the memory. He had a very stern look in the picture but he knew he had been happy even then. 'Will I ever have any of that back? The happiness that came just from being loved by Duo?'
Heero moved on and looked over the rest of the page pulling up more memories of the braided teen. He slowly flipped the page when a loud audible click of the door resounded through the apartment living room. He silently, quickly closed the book and stood, ready for an intruder.
He was taken completely off-guard to see the boy he was just thinking about. Duo stood there silhouetted against the bright street lights. Heero had the sudden urge to run over and hug him but he settled for a surprised, "Duo!"
Duo took a few steps forward and shut the door. He turned back around and smiled, "Yep, I'm home!"
Without even thinking about it Heero let out a sigh that did not go unnoticed by Duo. "So your not hurt," Heero whispered under his breath.
Hm? What did you say?" Duo asked while walking into the room, and taking a seat on the couch, not noticing the pictures. Currently his mind was on something else: He had promised to talk about why he'd avoided Heero if Heero wanted to. He didn't know what to say.
Thankfully, for awhile, Heero did not ask. He was more intent on how Duo's first military assignment in over two years had went. Duo was happy to oblige to this conversation and eagerly told him most of the important details and also even went into a small talk about how foolish it was of Preventers to send back a whole team for one man.
Personally, Heero didn't mind. He had missed Duo. Soon after, though, there was a silence that made it seem like the very air itself was pushing the boys to think of something to say.
Finally, Heero pulled a wrinkled post-it note out of his pocket and smoothed it out with his thumb. He silently looked up at the ceiling for a brief second. This had been on his mind and he wanted to get it off but... he was never good at starting conversations. Too bad, there is always a time to learn and it seemed to him like he might have to do a lot of talking in the future if he ever wanted Duo back. Might as well start now.
"Duo, I know you said you were sorry on this but I don't know for what. And I was just wondering if you were mad at me that day you left?"
Duo shook his head. He had figured Heero would misunderstand. "Naw. I said sorry for avoiding you and leaving the room abruptly without a reason." Duo looked away from Heero's blue eyes to concentrate on the carpet instead. "I didn't want to lose your trust. I didn't want to lose you as a friend. The reason, though, it seems sort of trivial now." Duo sought frantically for a way to speak the truth without spitting out that he had wanted to cuddle and kiss the boy that was sitting mere feet away from him now. He didn't know how that would go over and he really didn't want to find out. Plus, admitting it out loud would only make it more final and he didn't want that. For a little while he could still deny it. "It was just... some old memories and emotions got back to me and I had to get away for awhile. And the next morning, I don't know, I just didn't want to talk about it so..."
Heero nodded once he realized Duo was finished before noticing that Duo was still staring at the floor and couldn't see him. He walked over and pulled Duo's eyes up to meet his own. "It's fine. If that's really all it was then I just won't talk about-"
"NO!" Duo exclaimed suddenly jumping up so that Heero had to take a step back. "That's exactly what I don't want Heero... That's why I said I was sorry. I want you to talk to me okay? About anything." Heero nodded slowly at this outburst. It seemed Duo was taking this all very seriously.
"Good." Duo let out a shaky breath. Then he promptly fell back on to the couch and Heero sat down beside him. For a few long seconds a silence ensued until Duo happened to observe on of Heero's many photo books on the opposite sofa.
"Ooh! One of your old photo albums right?!" Duo exclaimed while jerking it up and plopping back down next to Heero. Duo's mood took a sudden turn while he opened it up and started flipping through the pictures. "I still can't believe you saved these!"
Heero simply shrugged and watched quietly as Duo flipped threw the pages and made little comments here and there. When Duo got to a new page he scooted over till he was up against the other boy's leg on the pretense of wanting to see the pictures too. Suddenly Duo faced Heero, "Why do you have this out anyways?"
Heero shrugged again. He looked off to the right a bit then back to Duo. "I thought that, well that Dave guy how he got hurt, I thought that you had got hurt. I heard some people talking in the office that someone had got hurt and I just didn't know if it was you even though I was pretty sure it wasn't. I sort of started missing you after thinking about it and I just wanted to see you so..." Heero trailed off and then met Duo's eyes again.
Duo sat still for a second then smiled. "I missed you too, Heero! I suppose it was good that I came back so that you didn't worry for too long, right?"
Heero nodded again. Then looked down to see a certain picture. One of the ones from a few days before he left. He looked at his hands and Duo continued flipping through the pictures with smiling and pointing out random ones.
Heero's mind was on something else. 'I need to apologize. I even told Quatre that. I don't know why I didn't do it in the first place.' He took in a small breath of air. This would also be fairly new. Apologizing.
"Hey Duo?" He asked hesitantly.
"Hm?" Duo looked up and smiled again, "Whatcha want?"
"I wanted to say that... I'm sorry." Duo's face showed obvious confusion and Heero went on, "I'm sorry that I left you so abruptly and that I hurt you. I know I did. I should... should have never done that. It was stupid of me and terrible for both of us. I really am sorry for
everything."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Please review and tell me what you think. I loved all my reviews for the last chapter and that is what spurred me on to write this one so quickly. Thank you all my reviewers so much.