Author's Note: Things are beginning to wind down now, aren't they? Well, (spoiler alert!) this is the second to last chapter of this fic. One more to go and we're through. So, while you all still can, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Warning: language, shounen ai

When You Think You Know Someone

Another day had come and gone, and Duo now found himself sitting on Solo's bed, sighing as he reread the same letter for the third time, still trying to make sense of it.

It didn't help matters that the school held another assembly today in memory of Wufei, mourning the Chinese's unexpected yet tragic death. Not only that, there was also a guest speaker there, someone who had "experience" in going through such a thing and requesting that if they had any problems, they should either call or go to this advocacy center, if not their local school counselor. Through all of it, Duo found himself squirming in his seat, as if he had been the person who had killed his archenemy. He couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for this all.

But that wasn't all, no sirree! Earlier today, his father's corpse had been discovered and deemed a suicide. This little tidbit of information had come from Howard who had not only informed him of it but also told him to expect to go to court sometime in the near future. Duo, however, wasn't really fooled; he knew that his father hadn't killed himself. The asshole valued his life too much to do something like that. No, he had been murdered by his company, of that he was positive.

Now here he was with this letter that requested his presence in a hearing that was to decide what to do with the Tsubarov estate, whether he was to get it, Romafellor, or even the government which was already licking its chops in anticipation. Knowing Howard, the guy was going to fight tooth and nail to at least secure him some sort of share of the estate, no matter how small it ended up.

Needless to say, he was not looking forward to this.

"What's this?" an all too familiar voice asked and Duo was not particularly resisting as the letter in his hands was gently pulled out. By now, he knew he was used to his significant other dominating practically everything and he knew that he probably should have done something to give the guy a challenge but he just wasn't in a perky mood today. Besides, Solo could be perky enough for the both of them when he put his mind to it.

He felt the bed dip right next to him as Solo settled his weight and wrapped an arm around him, pulling him closer to his body, all the while not taking his eyes off the piece of paper that Duo once held in his hands.

"Is this a subpoena or something?" Solo asked after a few minutes, removing his eyes from the paper to look down at him quizzically.

"You're damn right it is," Duo sighed, confirming Solo's suspicion. "Howard wants me to come in and help build his case as to why I should get everything that belongs, or used to belong, to my father. Says that it belongs to me since I am his only child and all that other shit."

"Government trying to take it all, huh?" Solo guessed, nodding to himself.

"Not just them," he clarified. "Romafellor is also making a case for it. It's a three way fight in which nobody's going to win. Anyway, I don't want any of it. It's blood money anyway."

"You don't?" Solo asked, blinking stupefied. "But don't you want any? You have a right to it, you know."

"You think I want anything that belonged to my father?" Duo asked.

"Point taken," Solo acknowledged.

"At least you understand that much," Duo sighed. "Howard sure as hell didn't"

"What?" Solo blinked owlishly.

"Howard can be a great guy, you know?" Duo said. "But he can also be a greedy son of a bitch. When it wasn't my father taking me to court to cut down the money he had to pay me, it was Howard taking him to court to get more money out of him. You think Howard is doing everything for free? No, he hasn't done pro bono with me since I first moved to an apartment, although he charges me a small fraction of what he usually charges clients."

"Just when you thought you knew a guy," Solo muttered to himself. "You sure know a lot of fucked up people, you know that?"

Duo chuckled at that pronouncement. "Well, you know what they say: birds of a feather flock together. My mother was, in my father's words, an opportunist; Howard's also one as well. As long as I was living with him, he used to take money out of my child support. That gravy train stopped when I moved out."

"No wonder he was all up in my face when I first met him," Solo said. "He thought I was going to steal you away from him, didn't he?"

"Maybe, don't really know. Let's just say that he wasn't fond of Quatre when I first mentioned him to him," Duo shrugged.

Wow, you learned something new everyday. There was somebody who actually didn't like his cousin? Duo had to restrain a laugh upon seeing Solo's stunned look.

"Wait," the blond suddenly said. "He was all for letting us take you in when we first mentioned it."

"Do you think he has the balls to challenge your family?" Duo countered.

"He's willing to take on Romafellor," Solo replied, pointing out the obvious.

"Maybe it's because people like your family more than they do your rivals," Duo said dryly. "People could care less if someone sues RC but God help the guy who spits on a WEI building. It's a huge bias out there and you should know by now that your uncle takes full advantage of it."

"Huh." Solo made no other reply as a frown marred his face but other than that, nothing.

"It's kinda sad, don't'cha think?" Duo commented wistfully. "I know more about your family business than you do and I'm not part of the family!"

"Is that so?" a slow smirk grew on the blond's face. "Maybe I should hire you as my secretary once I take over my father's position. Then we can have one of those office meetings where we get all freaky on my desk…"

"You're not making this easy, you know, liking you," Duo sighed, not bothering to jump down the blond's throat this time around.

Solo only tightened his embrace, squeezing him gently like he was a teddy bear.

--

Several days later, Duo found himself in a suit, the same one that he had worn to the Homecoming Dance he noted wryly, and in a court of law, sitting in one of the spectator's seats right behind Howard's table, a banister being the only thing that separated him from the old man.

It was one of those rare occasions, more common than thought mind you, where Howard was not wearing his sunglasses nor his God-awful Hawaiian shirt. The old man was dressed professionally for the job he had and he was determined to come out of this with something to show for it. Every once in a while, Howard would cast him a look, as if warning him not to do anything. Duo would always wince at that, remembering how Howard had reacted when he had tried to get out of the inheritance hearing.

Glancing around at the rest of those who bothered to come in, he saw a few faces he recognized, namely a few Romafellor execs that he hadn't seen since the court first ordered his father to pay him his child support. There was a friendly face amongst the gathered, Solo to be precise. How the blond had managed to get his father and uncle to allow him to come here, Duo did not know but he had a feeling that it involved a lot of begging.

A lot of begging…

Then there were the countless lawyers that Romafellor and the government were employing for this matter. There were boxes of papers galore and millions of dollars being spent by the minute as they all were looking through their stuff to define their cases and shred all others.

It was almost like a meat grinder. Almost.

And things were about to get worse as a new person entered the courtroom, their presence engulfing all others and forcing them to look upon them. Duo was not immune to this and the person he saw was an old man dressed prim and proper. From the sudden whisperings from among the Romafellor execs, they knew who this person was.

"Seems like ol' Romafellor is taking an interest in this," he heard Howard comment dryly from behind.

Duo did not glance back at Howard but kept his eyes firmly attached to the man who radiated authority in a way that he had only seen Mr. Winner do. Unlike Mr. Winner who seemed to invite you in and talk with him like he was any Joe Schmoe, this particular man instead seemed to command and demand your respect. Then those cold, hard, blue eyes snapped over to him and Duo found he couldn't look away as those eyes bored into him, tearing him apart from the inside out and putting him back together.

Finally, Howard's words made sense. His lawyer hadn't been talking about Romafellor the corporation but Romafellor the man. A violent tremble wracked his body and he turned around in his seat to look away from the terrifying man.

"All rise," boomed the voice of the bailiff. "The honorable Judge Warren K. Peacecraft presiding over…."

--

Duo had one fucked up life.

If he had said it once, Solo knew he was going to say it again. As soon as the opening arguments had begun, the government claiming that Tsubarov didn't make out a will before he died so his fortune should be left to them. Howard's argument was similar except that he was saying that since Duo was Tsubarov's biological son, DNA tests proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt, the estate belonged to him. Romafellor hadn't made theirs yet but from the way that their lawyers were speaking with the head honcho, Solo knew that something was up.

However, this was a world that he was not used to. He was more used to being involved with stuff that was more straightforward than anything. There were no politics, no power plays, none of that stuff. But now, he had, willingly, been plunged into this world the moment he had determined to remain at Duo's side through thick and thin, never expecting what he was getting himself into.

After everything, all that had happened from meeting Duo's father, narrowly evading death itself, and having to be an anchor in a tumultuous sea of chaotic emotions, it was all culminating right here, right now. Sure, he may have been out of his league but he wasn't going to be throwing in the towel until it was all said and done.

By the time Howard was returning to his seat and relinquishing the floor to Romafellor, Solo had begun to tune out everything and instead focused his attention on something more appealing, namely Duo.

The braided one did not look comfortable in anyway and had a pinkish tinge on his face that remained from when Howard had pointed him out to everyone in the courtroom while he was making his opening argument. Solo did not like that, not one bit. Only he could embarrass Duo in public, or so he claimed. To see someone else do it made him want to rip out the offender's throat but he was practicing restraint this time around. The last thing he wanted to do was to commit the crime in a court of law and have no defense other than insanity to prevent him from going to prison.

"Councilors, please approach the bench."

Huh, that phrase sounded familiar. Wait, had something happened while he had been nearly drool—er, observing Duo's outward self? He had only heard that "approach the bench" phrase in the movies and it usually meant that something had happened and the judge wanted to speak with the lawyers privately without leaving the courtroom.

"What's going on?" he whispered to Duo.

Duo gave him a look that clearly said you haven't been paying attention? Shaking his head as if telling the blond would be a high personal cost, he whispered back, "Romafellor's brought up some sort of agreement that my father signed years ago. Judge wants to have a look through before saying if it's admissible or what."

He really needed to start paying attention to these things. Honestly.

Aside from the whispered voices and occasional loud complaint, he couldn't grasp anything that was being said at the judge's bench but from the way the government's lawyer was marching away, along with that black scowl of his, it was obvious that things hadn't gone that man's way. The next few minutes were a bit noisy due to the fact that whatever the judge had decided, it seemed the government's case was being thrown out, leaving only Romafellor and Howard to duke it out between them. Yeah, those guys were getting out of here and Judge Peacecrap or whatever his name was was just waiting for the noise to quiet down so he could continue with the hearing.

However, Howard wasn't giving up so quickly. It was now that he could really see the other side to him that Duo had mentioned a few days earlier. The man was debating, quite loudly in fact, and was slowly losing that calmness that he had impressed upon him when they had first met. Romafellor, the representatives, not the man, were calm and their spokesman was coolly handling Howard easily.

Eventually, it came to a point where Howard wanted to start bringing up testimony from those in concern, namely Duo. That was when the judge himself intervened, siding with Romafellor.

Like the government lawyer before him, this time it was Howard who was the one with the black scowl on his face. Truly, Solo thought that he looked better with those sunglasses on; seeing Howard's dark eyes were enough to unnerve the blond teen.

Just when you thought you knew a guy, sheesh…

"Looks like that's it then," Duo sighed from right next to him. "I thought this was gonna last longer, like a few months, maybe years. But man, only a couple hours? What is this, an extended version of Judge Judy?"

"You watch that?" Solo asked, looking down at the braided one.

"Once," Duo said quickly, looking away from him. "Everybody else knows about it. I just happen to listen in."

"Oh, are you one of that old lady's fanboys?" the blond began to tease before the mental image of that thought finally hit him. Apparently, Duo had similar thoughts and was giving the blond a comical look of disgust.

"That is wrong on so many levels," Duo groaned, bowing his head into the palms of his hands as if trying to stab out his eyes.

That actually sounded like a good idea. Sometimes he even surprised himself with how disgusting his mind could get and this one just took the cake and ate it.

Thankfully, the bailiff's booming voice, ordering "All rise," was able to distract him from those horrible images, the blond's mind immediately latching onto the sound of Howard's voice as the man angrily began to mumble about filing appeals and other legal mumbo jumbo. This guy didn't seem to know when to quit. Really, just when you think you know someone…

Then the overbearing presence that could only have belonged to somebody of his uncle's caliber descended upon them. Mirroring Duo's actions next to him, he looked up to find that old man from before, the very person that Howard had called "ol' Romafellor." The guy wasn't as…big as he thought he would be. Hell, he was willing to bet that he could snap this guy in two with his bare hands if they were in a fight.

Those thoughts left him immediately as those hardened eyes fell over him and Duo, focusing more on Duo. Solo wanted more than anything to move closer to the braided one and provide him some sort of physical comfort but even though he wasn't being looked at directly, his body didn't seem to want to obey him.

The guy…no, this man, was something else, beyond anything he had ever dealt with. Once again, the blond felt fear course through his body, the very same fear that he had felt once he had learned about who Tsubarov was and what he had tried to do to Duo. It was an emotion that he still wasn't acquainted with and did not like in the least. It made him feel helpless, unable to do anything. He hated it whenever he felt like that.

Romafellor remained silent, as if preferring not to say anything. Then his deceptively soft voice finally flowed out, the sophistication so ingrained in it that the two teens almost thought that they were listening to a voice inside their heads.

"You are the Tsubarov boy, aren't you."

It was obvious that it wasn't a question but a statement. This man dealt in absolutes; there was no gray area in his vision.

From his dried-out mouth, Duo managed to answer, "Yes sir."

The older man seemed to be looking down his nose at Duo but his face was especially bland. There was no telling what this man was thinking of but there were cogs turning, that was for sure.

Finally speaking again, Romafellor said, "Despite how the deceased acted towards you, I bear you no malice. I come from a long tradition of passing along family wealth to the direct blood descendents. Since you are Dmitri's, I believe that I have something that belongs to you."

Swallowing, Duo asked, "What is it?"

"I want you to come to my head offices tomorrow at four o' clock sharp," Romafellor stated. "There I shall sign over everything that belongs to your father over to you, except for his position in the company, mind you."

Wide eyed, Duo only nodded. Solo couldn't help but feel stunned at this. What in hell was going on?

"That's very…" Duo paused, grasping for words, trying to use something that wouldn't offend this powerful figure. "…kind," he managed to blurt out. "It's very kind of you to do that…this…"

There wasn't even a delusion of a smile on Romafellor's face. It didn't even twitch. Just as neutral as he was when he entered the courtroom, he was just as neutral now.

"Don't be late," Romafellor said, only now turning away and leaving.

The two teens couldn't take their eyes off him until he passed through the courtroom's threshold and vanished from sight.