Title: Something Sweet ch 3?
Author: WickedGame
See first chapter for all disclaimers.
Warnings for this chapter: Foul language. Very light lime.
Notes: Beta read by Adaina.
Heero did kiss Duo then and it was a soft, soothing, delicate kiss that caused Duo to emit a sound similar to one that some people make when they take that first bite of chocolate cake. It was almost a purr, and Heero cracked a small smirk in response to the sound.
"You like that?" he asked Duo, pulling away from soft lips.
"Mmm. Yeah. Do it again," Duo moved in and kissed Heero again, letting the lips linger for a longer amount of time.
Heero knew that if they kept kissing it could lead to other things. The tightening of his pants was testimony to that. He didn't know how far Duo was willing to go or how far he himself was willing to let it go but he continued to kiss the gorgeous man that was straddling his thighs and letting out little contented sounds.
Duo pulled away from the kiss eventually and laid his head on Heero's shoulder.
"You're a damned good kisser, Heero. Maybe too good," he murmured as he felt a hand stroke his hair.
"I have good material to work with." Heero joked. Duo's rumbling laugh vibrated nicely throughout Heero's body.
"Mmm," Duo closed his eyes for a second and inhaled the scent of Heero's cologne, "I need to go home before I end up making a mess of things." He stood and stretched while Heero admired the view and wished he could ask the braided man to stay.
"I'll walk you out," is what came out instead.
Twenty minutes later Duo finally left in a cab after kissing Heero completely senseless on the curb. He waved out the back window as the cabbie drove away and Heero waved back, a smile gracing his face.
&&&
Friday dawned with Duo wishing he did not have to get up and go to work. What he really wanted to do was call Heero and make him play hooky so that they could go out for a trip to the beach. But since there was a celebrity wedding to be had the next day and he still had a ton of work to do he quickly got out of bed and pushed the thoughts out of his mind.
But by noon he was reconsidering that decision as one of the temp chefs put too much brandy in a batch of berries. Sally ordered him to leave for lunch. He decided to stroll over to the restaurant across the street and see if Heero was there.
Le Metro Bistro was not packed at lunch. It was a little far away from the business district for that. But some of the clientele was rich and powerful, the kind that could leave for hours for lunch breaks. Duo approached the front counter and smiled at a petite girl standing behind it.
"Table for one, sir?" she asked, blinking wide eyes.
"Actually, I was wondering if Heero is here right now?" Duo scratched the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.
"You're in luck he just walked in not too long ago. Would you like to me to go see if he's available?" Her nametag said 'Sylvia'. He would have to remember that.
"Yes, please. Thanks."
Duo waited while the cute girl went to get Heero. When Heero did come out he was serious looking until he saw Duo, then his face lit up.
"What brings you here?" he asked, giving Duo a quick hug.
"Sally kicked me out, said I needed to go somewhere else for lunch, so I thought I would swing by your swanky place and see if you had a minute to spare."
"I do have some time. Let me go place an order and then we can talk." Before Duo could protest Heero was gone and Sylvia was back.
"Come on, I can seat you in the back corner," she said with a slight blush. Duo followed her to the back corner of the restaurant where it was quiet and away from the rest of the patrons.
Sylvia sat him at a small walnut table with upholstered walnut chairs and then asked him what he would like to drink.
"Water with a lemon slice, please," Duo told her and he scurried off to get the drink.
Heero showed back up only a couple of minutes later with a tall blonde man in tow. Duo looked intently at his lean body and long hair. The ice blue eyes were studying him as well, trying to measure Duo up in an instant.
"Duo, this is Zechs Merquise, my boss. Zechs, this is Duo, my…" Heero struggled with a word, "boyfriend."
Duo felt a little startled. Boyfriend? Not that he minded too much if that was what Heero wanted to call him, but maybe they should've talked about it first. Duo held out his hand and smiled.
"It's nice to meet you, Zechs."
The smirk that followed the intro was enough to let Duo know that Zechs found this all quite amusing.
"The pleasure's all mine, Duo."
Then the blonde took his leave, and Heero looked apologetically at Duo.
"I'm sorry I was at a loss for an explanation."
"We've only gone on two dates, so it was something that we should've talked about beforehand, but I'm not weirded out by the idea." Duo gestured for Heero to sit, and he did.
"Working hard?" Heero asked, relaxing in his chair.
"Sure. What about you? Got your staff busy back there?" Duo smiled softly and thought about the wedding the next day.
"To tell the truth? Not really. There is some prep work going on, but the majority of the work will take place in kitchens and tents tomorrow at the estate." Heero fiddled with a fork and smiled as Sylvia approached.
"One water with lemon slice and one cola," she said as she set the glasses down on drink napkins.
"Cola?" Duo looked at Heero questioningly.
"I have a taste for some sweeter things." Heero smirked as he broke the wrapper on his straw.
Duo laughed and then asked his burning question, "What's on the menu tomorrow?"
Heero took a long drink of soda and then swallowed. "Well, two salads to choose from: a mushroom salad and a strawberry almond salad. Several appetizers, which came as a surprise."
"Why?" Duo was curious.
"Because they were not the usual pate, caviar and canapé order. That's what the rich usually order. But the happy couple decided to go a little more old school. They ordered miniature corn dogs, fried cheese sticks, buffalo wings, nachos, and quesadillas. But, that's not the funniest part." Heero was trying not to laugh.
"What's the funniest part?" Duo asked, on the verge of laughing himself. Mini corn dogs? At a wedding?
"Right after the salads and crazy appetizers they are going right back to fancy stuff. A choice of grilled filet mignon, grilled chicken breast or grilled vegetables with all these fancy sauces that I leave to the sous chefs. The sides are all fancy too. I won't even go into them. But can you imagine serving mini corn dogs at your wedding?" Heero seemed amazed.
"If I ever get married I will just skip all the fancy stuff and head straight for the barbeque. But, if that works for the happy couple then so be it, they always did do things their own way according to the media." Two small salads were set in front of them and Duo drizzled a little raspberry vinagrette over his before forking some into his mouth.
"Well, at least you can be sure that the wedding cake would be delicious," Heero joked as he took a bite.
"So," Duo said after he swallowed, "what are you doing after the wedding?"
"What do you want to do? After we clean up and the boss settles the bill I am all yours."
"Well…I was thinking that maybe you could come home with me, we could watch a few movies maybe…order pizza?" Duo waited for Heero to turn him down in favor of doing something else, but Heero was all for it.
"Absolutely. Sounds great. Right after the wedding?" Heero was eager to spend more time with Duo. Duo was amazing.
"You might want to bring a change of clothing, seeing as we might fall asleep watching the movie or something." Duo tried to sound like it was no big deal, but he was essentially trying to ease around asking Heero to stay the night.
Heero did not miss the feigned innocence of the question or the way Duo watched carefully for his reaction. Heero reached out and grabbed Duo's hand and squeezed it.
"Of course, just because we might fall asleep," he nodded in agreement as his heart leapt inside his chest. Duo wanted him to stay the night! If he were the type he would get up and dance a jig.
They talked amiably through the rest of lunch and then Duo left Heero with a lingering kiss in front of the restaurant. Duo walked back to the bakery with a giant smile on his face and went back to work on the creations for the next day.
&&&
The next day dawned very early for both Heero and Duo. The first thing to be taken to the estate where the wedding was being held was the wedding cake.
Wedding cakes are notoriously hard to transport. You risk them becoming mashed in places or the frosting getting smeared. And with the giant blown sugar bubble that would be sitting on top of the cake it was double the trouble.
Duo drove the refrigerated van very carefully. The sugar bubble was settled inside a slightly refrigerated crate packed in Styrofoam peanuts, and each layer of the cake was packed in its own small crate. There was no way Duo was going to let this masterpiece of a cake get damaged.
He swore that he had held his breath all the way until he turned the van off in front of the kitchen. The cake would stay in the van until the ceremony was in full swing. Then Duo and his assistants would remove it and assemble it on the cake table, which was lovingly decorated with fresh white roses and white daisies.
Hilde and Sally were already fussing over the other desserts, so Duo went to ask if he could help.
"No, not really. Another person here will make no difference. You can go look around maybe." Sally waved her hand to dismiss him, and Duo went walking.
Duo walked through a nicely tended tea garden before coming to a small herb garden. Sitting on a bench in the garden was none other than Quatre Winner, one the grooms in question.
"I didn't know you smoked Mister Winner." Duo remarked as he made his way over to the blonde.
"Do I know you?" Quatre asked as he threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped it out.
"I'm the person who baked your wedding cake. I'm just killing time waiting for my next assignment. Shouldn't you be upstairs, getting ready?" Duo was curious but didn't want to intrude too much.
Up close Quatre Winner was even more beautiful, and slightly more approachable than he looked in press coverage. Soft blonde hair and stunning aqua eyes with skin that looked like bisque porcelain. He still wasn't as cute as Heero, but handsome in his own way.
"I am ready, basically. Just stressed out I guess. Marriage is not something Trowa and I… wait, why am I telling you this?" Quatre stood and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I wasn't trying to pry, honest. Sometimes people just like to talk to me. You can talk to me if you want." Duo stood and offered his hand. "I'm Duo Maxwell, pastry chef."
"I'm Quatre Winner, groom for the day." Quatre shook Duo's hand and smiled brightly. "So, how's my cake?"
"It's fine. It's sitting in a van all packed tightly and waiting to be assembled. Let me tell you that blown sugar bubble on top was a bitch to make. It took a whole day to get it right!"
"I appreciate the effort. Well, Duo, I need to get back upstairs and drink something stiff to loosen up a little. If you'll excuse me?"
Quatre walked in a door not far from where they stood and Duo decided to walk back to the kitchens and see if Heero had arrived yet.
&&&
Heero was in full mission mode when Duo arrived. Duo was pretty sure that, by the way Heero was barking orders, if he were to even approach Heero he would himself holding a whisk and being ordered to do this or that in the name of something not burning. So he decided to hang back and watch his boyfriend in action instead.
Now that was a notion that he had thought a lot about after he had finally gone home the night before. A boyfriend. He hadn't had a boyfriend for a couple of years. The last one, a guy name Alex, had been a decent boyfriend, but had been kind of turned off by public affection. Duo knew that there was trouble when they had been dating for three months and Alex refused to take him out with any of his friends or to meet anyone he was related to. They had parted somewhat amicably, and Duo was not ashamed of what they had shared.
And he had dated off and on, but this one, Heero…he was different. Special. Heero was definitely special. Duo liked Heero a lot and he kept on liking him more and more with every minute. Heero was like coffee, Duo decided. If you grew up not knowing what coffee tasted like then it was okay, you would never miss it. But if you drank coffee and all of a sudden you could never get enough of it then coffee was Heero. He could not get enough of Heero.
They had been out twice now, and it had taken all of Duo's willpower not to throw himself on Heero and beg him to make love to him the other night. He didn't know why he was waiting or what he was waiting for. He just knew he liked Heero and wanted to know Heero inside and out. Tonight he would get a chance to find out if he and Heero were compatible in bed, and that was important. He just hoped it wouldn't be too awkward.
An Asian man of approximately his age came forward and stood in front of Duo with a curious glare on his face. "Who are you?"
"Not much for the social pleasantries, are you? I'm Duo Maxwell. I'm a pastry chef." Duo offered his hand, which the man did not shake.
"You're Yuy's boyfriend." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, so?" Duo got a little defensive. This man did not have the most genial of personalities and it showed.
"Nothing. Why are you here?"
"What's your name?" Duo asked. He wanted to know before things got messy.
"Wufei. I'm a sous chef."
"My best sous chef." Heero interrupted as he walked over to the pair. "Anything wrong?"
"No, I was just wondering what your boyfriend was doing hanging around our kitchen." Wufei told Heero.
"What are you doing here, Duo?" Heero asked curiously.
"Bored. Sally told me to go amuse myself."
"Well, get out of here. Not that I mind you being here, but with you here I can hardly concentrate. I will catch you after the cake is cut." Heero pushed Duo out of the doorway and Duo took the hint, heading back to where he came from.
&&&
Duo, Hilde, and Sally lifted the bottom tier onto the table, and slowly lifted all the other tiers into place. Then Duo carefully unpacked the blown sugar bubble and placed it on the top.
"It's gorgeous. The most gorgeous cake I have ever seen." Sally marveled.
"I'm quite proud," Duo remarked.
The platinum cake knife and server were on the table next to the cake. Duo gave the work of love a last look and then went to help with the other desserts. The guests would be emerging in a matter of minutes and Duo wanted to see their faces when they got buffalo wings instead of pate and caviar.
&&&
Heero sidled up to Duo after most of the guests had left and only a few devoted partiers were still around.
"Enjoying the fruits of your labor?" he asked. Duo was currently eating a slice of cake and had a bit of icing stuck to the tip of his upturned nose. Heero reached out and scooped it off with a finger and then sucked the icing off the finger.
"Buttercream," he stated.
"I like cream cheese frosting better personally, but buttercream is the traditional frosting to go under fondant."
"The buttercream holds up a little better when it is not cold." Heero opened a bottle of water and took a long drink.
"Yup." Duo agreed. He looked around and paused. "I guess we could maybe go, right?"
"I have the all clear. What about you?" Heero asked.
"Let's go find Sally. I have to return the van to the bakery but then we can go back to my place from there." Duo grabbed Heero's hand and led the way.
"Whatever you say." Heero smiled and just followed.