I've decided to do a difficult thing, and that is to let some of my unfinished WIPs go.
Unfortunately, this is one of them.
This isn't about a "why didn't people review this more?" Although, with this fic, I honestly did lose my passion for writing it after several reviews and PMs unhappy with the pacings and pairings. This was a fic that has been close to my heart for as long as I have been writing ff on this site and it has been very difficult to admit that I'm setting it aside.
This is about my unfortunate tendency to start ideas, to plot them out in my head, and then find myself drawn to a new idea.
I still have this problem but I'm working on it, and I'm trying to only work on fics that I can commit to finishing. So, I've gone back and updated every fic that I am officially abandoning and calling it complete as well as adding in a final chapter - this chapter.
Let me share a few thoughts on where This Time was going.
Part 1: Trowa's POV.
2001 Summer - things with Quatre
2001 Fall Semester Freshman year
2002 Spring Semester Freshman year - finally starts to talk to Duo and like him
2002 Fall Semester Sophomore year - lots of stuff with Ralph
2003 Spring Semester Sophomore year - party right before Spring Break, the kiss... the fallout
2003 Fall Semester Junior year - Duo's grandmother dies, Thanksgiving... all that jazz
2004 Spring Semester Junior year
Part 2: Duo's POV.
2004 Fall Semester Senior year - dealing with the end coming on soon. NYU safety school... Halo 2 nov 9
2005 Spring Semester Senior year - graduation, Duo's dad, the cheating, the breakup
2005 London. Summer after graduation. Meets Quatre again. Revenge of the Sith comes out.
Part 3: Wufei's POV
2005 Paris: meets Duo
2006 Paris: Halloween party...
2007 Paris: threesome of doom
2008 Paris: Wufei graduates, they end their relationship on very good terms.
Part 4: Heero's POV
2007-8: Fall. Meets Trowa.
2008-9: second year
2009-10: graduates Yale. Gets job at State Department.
2011-2012: Oman. Meets Duo
Part 5: Duo's POV
2013-2014: Barcelona. Runs into Quatre YET AGAIN. Gets job in NYC
Part 6: Trowa's POV
2013: Takes job at Columbia University. Sees Heero again. Meets Wufei
2013: Runs into Ralph again. Things pick right back up
2014: Duo's return
2015: Quatre's return...
Wufei born 1980
Duo, Trowa, Heero, Quatre born 1983
Trowa graduates high school in 2001
Wufei finished undergrad in 2002
Duo, Trowa, Heero finish undergrad in 2005
Heero and Wufei finish grad school in 2008
Duo and Trowa finish grad school in 2012
Heero in Oman 2011-2012
Duo in Oman 2012
Trowa in London 2012-2013
Heero, Wufei in NYC 2012-on
Trowa in NYC 2013-on
Duo in NYC 2014 -on
Heero, Wufei married November 2014
Duo's father dies December 2014
New Year's Eve Party/Gala/Charity Dinner 2015 - Quatre back
This Time
Part II, Chapter 1
Summer 2004
"Don't touch anything. Don't ask questions. Don't go snooping about. And for God's sake don't speak too much. Maybe everyone will just forget you're American if we don't have to hear your voice."
The instructions, delivered in a snooty British accent that made Duo's fingers twitch by 'I just graduated from Cambridge and I'm too important to be wasting my time with you' David Kaye, made Duo feel like laughing.
"How am I supposed to learn?" he had to ask.
Kaye came to a sudden stop and wheeled about to glare at Duo.
"The National Portrait Gallery is not some undergraduate classroom that you can frolic through. These internships are reserved for post-graduate students for a reason. If you need your hand held then you do not belong here. If you are expecting daily lectures then you are in the wrong place. If you expect any one of the immensely important and busy curators to waste their valuable time teaching you the difference between a Hogarth and a Romney then you are clearly an idiot and a waste of everyone's time."
Kaye held Duo's gaze until he finally nodded. Then Kaye turned around and proceeded to continue marching Duo through the extensive archives.
He started to tune out Kaye and instead walked as slowly as possible, looking over the carefully stored paintings and trying to figure out just what the hell he was going to do for the next two months if he couldn't touch anything, couldn't ask questions and couldn't even talk to anyone.
When he had first applied for this internship back in February, things with Trowa had been a disaster and Duo had figured that a summer spent in London would either clear his head and he would figure out how to fix things, or a summer apart would give Trowa the chance to move on and give their relationship a clean break.
Of course, by the time he received his letter of acceptance into the internship program it had been April and things with Trowa had been great. Duo had honestly thought about just ripping up the letter and forgetting the whole thing. As much as completing an internship at the National Portrait Gallery in London would look amazing on his application to the Sorbonne, Duo really didn't want to spend the summer away from Trowa.
Of course Hilde had called him a complete moron - the chance to spend two months learning from some of the most talented conservators in the world was an opportunity only a moron would pass on. She had also pointed out that if they couldn't spend a summer apart what the hell were they going to do next year when Duo went off to Paris and Trowa went to Yale.
"I mean, you're in this for happily ever after, right?" Hilde had asked him over drinks one night. The question had taken him completely off guard.
"Yeah," he found himself saying. "I guess I am."
He knew it was stupid. He was twenty-one and Trowa was the only relationship he had ever had.
"You are completely domesticated," Hilde said with a smile.
He scowled at her.
"I'm serious - remember Duo from freshman year? Duo who freaked out if a guy asked him out on a second date? Or what about Duo from sophomore year who freaked out if a guy said yes to him for a second date? And now... look at Duo now..."
He rolled his eyes.
"Can we stop it with the talking about me like a character from a kid's book?"
Hilde shrugged.
"I'm just saying, you're all grown up and head over heels in love... you're almost as disgusting as Mags and Kurt."
"We are not that bad," Duo argued.
"Not quite," Hilde agreed. "So, you're going to talk to Trowa about this, right?"
"About my domestication?" Duo asked in confusion.
"No, about your amazingly cool and totally badass internship in London. The one that you will under absolutely no circumstances pass on. Think of what Patrick will say when you tell him that you turned down the opportunity he fought his ass off to get you."
She had a point.
Duo had seen the internship notice posted in one of the graduate studios - because the internship was usually awarded to post-graduate students. Duo had spent days stalking Patrick until finally the art history professor agreed to look into it for him. When Duo had told Patrick about the acceptance letter yesterday the professor had nearly collapsed in relief.
"You have no idea how many favors I had to call in to get you that," he had said. "Don't screw this up."
Passing on the internship would definitely count as screwing it up.
Duo sighed.
"We just figured things out between us and now I'm going to just... go to another country for two months?"
Hilde sighed.
"Duo - this is two months. Graduate school is six years. Consider this your... kiddie pool of long distance relationship training."
It had taken another week before Duo found the right moment to tell Trowa about the internship.
Duo skipped his usual night of working in the art studio to come home and make spaghetti - Catharine had given him the recipe, despite the fact that Trowa had been begging her for the recipe for years and she had refused to tell him. Despite his efforts to be casual Trowa had known instantly that something was wrong.
As soon as Trowa walked into the kitchen and sniffed the air he had been on his guard.
"What happened?"
"Huh?" Duo asked, in the middle of pulling the garlic bread out of the oven.
"You made Catharine's spaghetti. Either you're trying to rub it in my face that my sister likes you more than she likes me, her own brother - or something's wrong."
Duo smirked.
"Look, Tro, I can't help it if your sister is crazy about me. I mean... I'm kind of amazing."
Trowa crossed his arms.
Duo sighed and put down the garlic bread.
"Have you, ah, given any thought to this summer?" Duo asked.
Trowa's brows knit in confusion.
"Not really. I was going to spend it working at the restaurant and doing research for my thesis."
Duo nodded.
"What about you?" Trowa asked when Duo remained silent.
"Oh, yeah, well... I've been accepted into an internship program."
"That's great," Trowa said and smiled, genuinely happy for him.
"It's with the National Portrait Gallery."
"In D.C.?"
"In London."
Trowa stared at him in silence.
"I applied back in February - when things were, you know... crap, basically. I figured time apart and all that would -"
"You figured you would just run away again," Trowa concluded with a sigh.
Duo shrugged and then had to nod in unhappy agreement.
"But that was then, and now... I don't want to spend the entire summer five time zones apart."
Trowa smiled slightly. It was rare that Trowa grinned or smiled broadly, and while Duo loved those moments when he did get Trowa to smile like that it was this expression - the slight smile that was more a tilt of the corners of his lips - that was Duo's favorite.
"I can't believe you just admitted that to me," Trowa said.
Duo sighed.
"Yeah, well, Hilde said I'm domesticated now... I guess she's right."
Trowa's lips twitched as he fought back laughter.
"It's not that funny," Duo muttered.
"It's a little funny," Trowa argued. "Should I get you a collar with a bell on it?"
"Only if you plan on trying out S&M with me," Duo growled.
Trowa arched an eyebrow, clearly thinking about the idea.
"But back to the subject at hand," Duo said after a moment, "I don't have to go."
"Yes, you do," Trowa argued. "You're going to have an amazing time. You're going to learn from some of the best conservators in the world and think of all the history and research you will be exposed to. Plus I'm sure it will look great on your application to the Sorbonne."
All of this was true. But so was the fact that Duo was finally in a relationship with Trowa. He was finally, for the first time since his mother had died, actually sleeping more than four hours a night and he was happy, really happy, for probably the first time in his entire life. He simply couldn't shake the feeling that if he went away for the summer not only would he be miserable but things would fall apart between him and Trowa.
"You know... I could go with you," Trowa mused.
"To London?" Duo asked hopefully. He hadn't even thought about the possibility of Trowa going with him. "You could," he decided. "You could - you could do research at the National Archives. There's probably entire rooms dedicated to the colonial period. You'd have access to a ton of primary source research for your thesis that no one else will. You -"
"I'd be with you," Trowa interrupted, still wearing that same smile.
"Which is clearly the selling point," Duo agreed.
"So, we're going to London for the summer," Trowa said.
Which meant that now, as Duo reluctantly followed David Kaye through the underbelly of the National Portrait Gallery he could look forward to seeing Trowa that night at the one bedroom flat they had rented for the summer. He hoped that Trowa was having a more productive day at the Archives. Duo had watched in amusement as Trowa spent the two weeks before they left for London meticulously planning out his research and listing who, what, when and where to look up.
Duo had always thought that Trowa was borderline obsessive-compulsive, especially when it came to researching and writing papers, and he was always a little in awe of Trowa's ability to plan things. Duo, by contrast, found himself jumping headlong into everything - from his painting to his papers and even his chemistry projects, which probably explained why it was so difficult to keep a steady lab partner.
"These are where the senior curators work," Kaye continued to drone on, leading Duo upstairs to a well lit and spacious studio. "Do not disturb them. In fact, you probably won't come into this room ever again. Just forget it exists."
Duo scanned the bright space and his eyes landed on a middle-aged man working on what looked to Duo like a Renaissance era portrait. Even from this distance Duo could make out enough details to guess that it was a portrait from the Tudor courts.
The man was dressed in a bright, floral print Hawaiian shirt, battered shorts and leather sandals. His hair, balding on top, grew in two large tufts on either side of his ears that stuck out and gave him a more than somewhat crazy appearance.
"Who's that guy?" Duo had to ask, thinking that next to the pretentious British curators this man stood out just as much as Duo.
"That is Dr. Howard. He's on loan from the Louvre to restore one of our Tudor portraits."
"He's French?" Duo asked, amused and horrified at the same time.
"Obviously," Kaye growled. "Now, let's move along. We're supposed to meet with Dr. Cooper."
Duo followed Kaye from the room, unable to resist glancing back one last time to look at Dr. Howard.
Kaye led them up another flight of stairs to the administrative offices and came to a final stop in front of the office of the chief curator, Tanya Cooper.
"Oh - come in!" She said with a bright smile when she finally looked up from her computer and noticed them. "You must be Duo Maxwell?"
"Yes, ah, thank you again for accepting me into the program."
Cooper smiled.
"Of course. When Patrick called me to tell me about this extraordinary student of his I had to say yes. Of course, he didn't tell me until later that you were an undergraduate." She looked at him with sharp blue eyes. "We aren't used to having such inexperienced interns."
Duo nodded.
"I completely understand and I promise not to -"
She held up a hand.
"We're delighted to have you on board. Really. Usually our interns assist curators on special projects - cataloguing, researching and sometimes even restoration."
Duo had to grin at the prospect of actually getting to assist with a restoration.
"But, I'm afraid that you are simply too inexperienced. Let's start off having you assist Mr. Kaye here with his paperwork. He's in the process of filing the documentation for our acquisitions over the last twenty years and could certainly use an extra set of hands."
Duo felt the grin leave his face and Kaye glared at him, clearly upset about getting stuck with babysitting duty.
"Now, off with you two."
They left the office and Duo had to sigh.
"Just remember - you're lucky to even be here," Kaye growled. "Your job, for the rest of the summer, is to make my life easier. Don't screw it up or you can bet I'll write you the absolute worst letter of recommendation you've ever seen."
It was, Duo was certain, going to be a disastrous summer.
-o-
Meeting Howard...
Tanya Cooper, Chief Curator, who knows Patrick, Duo's Art History professor...
Going home to talk to Trowa...
Six weeks of crap and then...
Kaye finally took a lunch break in the early afternoon. As soon as he left his work table Duo wasted no time. He filed the documents he had been sorting and, glancing around to make sure that the curators were hard at work, he approached the desk.
A single panel wooden panel laid on the table facing upwards.
Duo leaned over the work, careful to keep his hands and his hair to himself, and was soon absorbed in examining the details of the work.
"What do you think it is?"
Howard's voice scared Duo and he jumped backwards in alarm.
The Frenchman smirked at him as Duo put one hand over his racing heart.
"Oil on wood," Duo answered.
"Well, your eyes are firmly lodged in your head at least," Howard sneered.
Duo rolled his eyes and turned back to the painting.
"It's a panel - obviously," he added when he felt Howard shift closer. " It's a resurrection scene."
"How can you tell?" Howard asked.
Duo shrugged one shoulder and gestured towards the image of a trumpeting angel at the top of the panel.
"Well he's a dead giveaway, so is the man rising up from either sleep or death at the bottom of the panel - plus the weeping statue, but look at the inscription at the top. 'Non Moriar' that's latin for 'I shall not die' right? Actually wait - there's that Psalm... oh damn I can't remember which one. Something about not dying but living and..."
"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord," Howard supplied with a smirk. "Very good. Now, what do you think this panel was?"
Duo frowned and looked at the edges of the work.
"You can see some unpainted wood here - I don't know if that's damage or if it indicates that this was... part of a triptych or maybe a diptych?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Well, look at these notches on the side here...that could be where pins connected it to another panel."
"Turn it over."
"What?" Duo asked in alarm.
"Turn the panel over."
Duo looked around the room.
"I'm not allowed to touch anything," he felt the need to point out.
Howard removed his sunglasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"And do you always follow the rules, heller?"
Duo rolled his eyes at the nickname that Howard had saddled him with after day one.
He grabbed a pair of nitril gloves from Kaye's desk and pulled them on.
"I'm going to get fired for this," he muttered but did as instructed and carefully turned the panel over. "Oh shit."
Instead of revealing the back of the panel, Duo had turned it over to reveal another painting. Howard smirked at him.
"Now what is it?" he prompted.
"A mystery," Duo responded. This side was the portrait of a single figure, dressed in dark robes with a black cap and a somber expression.
Duo frowned.
"There's no way this is a triptych or diptych," he mused. "It wouldn't make any sense to have this portrait facing out - I wonder -"
"What the hell are you doing at my desk?"
Kaye had returned and he glared down at Duo. His eyes latched onto Duo's gloved hands, still holding the edge of the frame.
"Are you touching that?"
Duo slowly put the panel down and stripped off the gloves. He backed away at the same time.
"What part of file papers and leave me alone is so difficult for you to understand?" Kaye demanded. "What exactly makes you think that you can just waltz in here and start fondling priceless treasures that your small mind cannot even begin to comprehend?"
Duo clenched his jaw against the retort he desperately wanted to deliver.
"Interesting work," Howard mused aloud, stepping forward.
Kaye shifted his attention to the Frenchman.
"Yes, sir, I was just preparing my notes on the piece. It's clearly part of a triptych or diptych."
"Clearly," Howard repeated with an amused look in Duo's direction.
"This face is obviously the donor portrait and the reverse is perhaps a mistake or -"
"It's part of a door," Duo said.
"No, it isn't," Kaye said with a sigh. "Do you not know anything? Look at the marks on the side, it -"
"Yeah, I saw those. Probably pins or hinges."
"Triptychs have hinges too."
"Sure, but why would that dude be facing outwards? Triptychs don't usually do that. But if this was the door of... an altarpiece or something then it makes perfect sense. The resurrection scene is on the outside and the donor portrait is revealed when you open the alter."
"Yes, exactly!" Howard agreed and awkwardly patted Duo on the head. "Now, can you date it for me?"
"Roughly, maybe," Duo said. "Without analyzing the paint I can't -"
"Yes, yes. You kids these days and all your fancy machines. What can you tell me just by looking at it?"
Duo stepped to the side, around Kaye who was glaring at him as if his eyes could kill Duo on the spot, and examined the painting again.
"This background looks like it could be eighteenth or nineteenth century - it's got a great pastoral layout, but the figure looks earlier. I'm not an expert on costume."
"You're not an expert on anything," Kaye snorted.
"What about the pigments?" Howard asked.
"I can't tell," Duo said honestly. "But I'd love to do an analysis on the blue of the mountains and the yellow. The blue has a really interesting tone - I wonder if it's azurite or smalt? And the yellow - I can't tell if it's lead or tin. If it's lead then this is definitely an eighteenth or nineteenth century panel, but if it's tin... it could be sixteenth or seventeenth century. Which would fit with the costume better, right? I bet if you do an analysis on the wood you could -"
"Yes, obviously a dendrochronological analysis will show me the right age of the panel," Kaye broke in, clearly at the end of his patience.
Duo nodded.
"Yeah, I'd love to know what -"
"You will be long gone by the time the analysis is completed," Kaye snapped. "Thankfully your internship ends next week and then I won't have to deal with you stepping in my way all the time anymore."
Duo sighed.
"Yeah, I just -"
"Go back to filing," Kaye instructed. "And don't think that this insubordination won't go in your report. I doubt the Sorbonne will take kindly to reading about your inability to treat fragile pieces of art with care or your failure to follow instructions. I hope you have a back up school."
He turned to Howard with a much more sympathetic look. "Sir, I think I can give you a more precise date on this is we flip the panel back over to the more relevant side and..."
Duo walked away from them and forlornly started to file more documentation. The one time he actually got to do something and it ended in disaster. He completely believed that Kaye would write a negative report for his internship and he cursed himself for being such a show off. He needed a letter of recommendation from this place if he wanted to stand out. He wondered if he could beg Tanya Cooper for a letter, despite the fact that she had foisted him off onto Kaye that first day.
"My colleagues at the Sorbonne aren't as nice as I am."
Howard had appeared out of thin air again and was at Duo's elbow.
Duo blinked in confusion.
"And their are idiots like David Kaye everywhere - even in Paris," he continued.
Duo's lips twitched at the statement.
Howard shrugged.
"But... you aren't a complete failure. I will write you a letter of recommendation if you do something for me."
Duo could only nod. He was completely at a loss for words.
"You must never allow an idiot to diminish your worth - I see you run around with your papers every day, doing what Kaye tells you to and never thinking you can do more. If you go to Paris then you must remember that you are better and brighter. I will tolerate no mediocrity from my pupils."
"Pupils? You teach at the Sorbonne? I thought you worked for the Louvre."
"I teach at the Sorbonne, I work at the Louvre, I sail boats at Nice - why must I do only one thing? Do we have a deal?"
Duo nodded enthusiastically.
"Very well. Leave your information on my desk before you go back to America."
Duo fought against the impulse to hug Howard.
"Thank you," he said.
Back to school, meet up for drinks and Kurt stars on with "The End is Nigh" crap.
Halo 2 comes out November 9th.
Duo decides to apply to NYU, they go visit the campus... it's... a solid okay. Duo applies there as well as the Sorbonne. Trowa thinks about applying to Oxford...
Alice and Hilde...
What else happens? More Catharine time.
-o-
This Time
Part II, Chapter 2
Spring 2005
Finally a decent Valentine's Day.
Acceptance and rejection letters...
Spring Break.
The end approaches...
Trowa gets the copy of the Federalist Papers from Quatre and lies about it to Duo.
Graduation Day.
Duo spots some familiar faces. His father shows up at the apartment, they fight... Duo goes off alone for awhile, finds himself at the bar and gets very drunk very quickly. Goes home with Carl, sleeps on the couch and uses his shower...
… comes home the next morning and he and Trowa fight, Trowa thinks he cheated on him and Duo is badly enough off and convinced that Trowa wants a way out anyway and just lets him think that.
He then goes and sleeps with Carl.
-o-
This Time
Part II, Chapter 3
Summer 2005
Back in London for the summer, trying desperately to bury himself in work and forget about everything. Goes out at night to clubs but just can't make a connection with anyone and the idea of random hook ups just doesn't appeal to him anymore.
Revenge of the Sith comes out in May
Runs into Quatre.
All of that fallout.
Does Duo tell him he knows Trowa?
Moves to Paris and starts school. Decides to stay in Paris, on his own, for Christmas.
-o-
This Time
Part II, Chapter 4
2006
Duo still in school, still lonely, tries to date a fellow student and it doesn't go well. He feels lonely and homesick and the only thing that seems to make sense is his work.
Wufei moves in across the hall that fall. He's sort of... a kept man.
Initially they do not get along but eventually they do.
-o-
This Time
Part II, Chapter 5
2007
Duo stops the thief at the Louvre.
Wufei and Treize finally break up and Duo and Wufei kind of fall into bed together.
Hilde comes to visit for Christmas, threesome of doom.
-o-
There is more, of course, but I only thoroughly outlined through Part II.
Part III and Part II kind of melded into one, and Wufei's POV is unfortunately eliminated.
Part IV finally introduces Heero - something that several people complained hadn't happened soon enough.
Heero and Trowa are in grad school together, fall for each other, are very happy until Heero is essentially guilt tripped by Relena's father into coming to work for the CIA (Relena does as well). When his first overseas posting comes up he finds he can no longer maintain his pretense with Trowa that he is working for an NGO and they have a pretty great shower scene where Heero tells him everything and they end things, as friends, with Trowa really, really worried about him.
Heero gets assigned to Oman and for a few months it's routine - lots of chatter but no real action and then he gets word that some American ex-pat has been hired by the palace to look into restoring some of their art and gets assigned to try to turn him into a source. It is, of course, Duo.
Things… well. It's Oman and Duo is followed everywhere by the palace assigned bodyguards so even though he totally has the hots for this guy who says he's here teaching kids with some teachers without borders program, nothing REALLY happens except for some mutual masturbation under a table at a night club and LOTS of long, searing looks and near kisses.
Anyway, things go to shit - there is a coup and all Americans are evac'd. Duo, of course, isn't around and Heero rescues him, only to have Duo shot to pieces and med-evac'd to Germany.
Which is where Heero meets Wufei for the first time - and gets the dressing down of a lifetime.
After, Heero moves to NYC and leaves the CIA to take a job with the ACLU.
-o-
Part 5 has us back with Duo, a little while later - oh yeah, before Oman he went to St. Petersburg to work at the Hermitage for a while, then Oman and THEN he went to Barcelona to work at the Museu Picasso. Some other background on Duo - remember the threesome of Doom?
Well Hilde and Alice got together but Hilde wanted kids, they broke up, Hilde went to Paris for her birthday and slept with the boys, went home, got back together with Alice… found out she was pregnant (the kid is Duo's) so she and Alice have Max and Duo is known as his uncle and gets to watch him grow up from a distance.
Anyway, in Barcelona Quatre and Duo have a thing but Duo ends it and like FLEES to NYC when a job at the MET opens up.
-O-
Part 6 we are back with Trowa, who is also now in NYC, also now a great author - originally he was even going to be on The Daily Show and get interviewed by Jon but I guess it would be Noah now if I ever did finish this.
Wufei and Heero are engaged. Trowa will be Heero's best man and he meets up with them for dinner, meets Wufei for the first time, thinks he is perfect for Heero.
Also while in NYC Trowa and Ralph reconnect and pick things up where they left them. Ralph, incidentally, wants to be President and at this point is running for US Senate (he's already an NY state asesmblyman or whatever).
Duo returns a few months later and Wufei, of course, wants Duo as HIS best man and they all meet - and realize that Duo and Trowa know each other and Wufei realizes THIS is the guy who broke Duo's heart and Heero realizes THIS is the guy who broke Trowa's heart so it's… awkward as fuck for a long long time.
Lots of tense, angry dinners, lots of fights.
And then Duo and Trowa sleep together and things… things get worse.
The wedding, Ralph proposes and Trowa has to say no (and it was like, a really angsty moment let me just tell you).
Duo's dad is sick - remember the one who disinherited him and punched him?) so Duo goes home and Trowa finds out and flies out to LA with him. Cue the weekend of AWFUL before they return to NYC and Trowa spends the night with Duo, no sexy times, and they TALK. A lot.
They decide… let's try dating, maybe? Let's… let's start over. So they do.
They meet for lunch three times, no kissing, no sex, just… honest conversation and Trowa realizes, all over again, how much he loves Duo.
AND THEN QUATRE SHOWS UP.
And Duo thinks well I'm done. Trowa has ALWAYS loved Quatre and I've never measured up and that's it, the end.
So he's busy bowing out while Quatre is busy trying to use his friendship with Trowa as an excuse to spend time with DUO because, guess what, Quatre - who got over Trowa pretty quickly years and years ago, came to NYC to win Duo back.
Trowa finds out Quatre's intentions, finds out Duo and Quatre's complicated past - and it all comes down to a weird and sappy moment when they both try to break up with each other so they can be with Quatre and then they realize what they're trying to do, and what they really want, and they stay together and are happy the end.
Oh yeah and Quatre and Ralph become a thing.