The was a challenge that was never fulfilled, is being reworked, and that I intend to finish. All I wish for is luck and some motivation.
Title: Domestic
Author: Ileana A. (babygray)
Main Pairing: Duo/Heero
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine. This is pure jest.
Notes: This is a 26-part story, made up of noisefics/drabbles/whatever. It's not chronological, but don't worry too much about that. Reworked, but rough and un-beta'ed.
Warning: This isn't so much 'reworked' as completely written anew. Which means it's fresh and disgustingly rough. Ha!
--Love--
Odin Lowe was an imposing man, with pale hair bleached near-white from constant exposure to the sun and a darkly tanned face that made him seem nearly dangerous. Under the shadows of the awning, surrounded by the crowd of people waiting for arriving family, he was a beacon to Heero's eyes. The way he ambled towards them held just enough intensity to make the crowd part before him, but Heero saw the attitude was anything but malicious.
The tall man took one look at the two young men before wrapping his son in a fierce hug that Heero weakly returned.
Heero whispered his greeting, the first half of a long-used, nearly ritualistic, pattern as Odin placed a light kiss on Heero's cheek and returned the greeting in the same breath. Perhaps satisfied for the moment, Odin drew away from his son, only to wrap his arms around the unnaturally silent Duo, murmuring a greeting as he did so.
Perhaps remembering himself, becoming aware once more of the crowd of visitors and waiting families around them, he drew away from Duo after a moment. He placed a light, comforting hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Let's get you two out of this airport and home," Odin said more towards Duo's bowed head than his son, his voice a soothing rumble that reminded Heero of all the other times his father tried to heal hurts, be they physical or emotional.
Duo neither nodded nor shook his head to the words. The only action he made was to reach out and clasp Heero's hand lightly. A unnatural, almost silent roar filled Heero's ears at the touch.
"Just that one suitcase?" Odin asked his son, nodding his head towards the lone piece of luggage at Heero's feet.
"Yes," he replied, allowing his thumb make a few soothing circles on the bit of Duo's skin it touched. The pressure of time forced them to pack light. There wasn't much they needed to bring, just some everyday clothes and a black suit that needed to be ironed.
Odin grabbed the trolley handle of the luggage piece and patted his son's head reassuringly. "Let's get moving."
"Duo!" someone cried out from somewhere to their left, stopping them in their step before they even began to move towards the garages.
Only Heero and Odin looked in the general direction of the shout, both unaware that there would be someone else just outside the arrival lobby, waiting for them.
At the sight of the heavy-set man that nearly stormed towards them, Odin's soft, comforting expression turned cold. "Maxwell," he nearly growled in a voice Heero did not like to hear.
Even at first sight, Heero could see that the man was Duo's father. Their faces were the same, even if Duo's skin wasn't nearly as fair and his father's features were obscured by a large pair of tinted glasses. The face, however, seemed to have been the only feature they share.
"Duo, my boy," the man said as he wrapped his arms around his son, nearly engulfing him with his sheer mass, his chin pressed against the side of Duo's temple. "I'm so glad you've had a safe flight." He drew away from his son, his hands on Duo's shoulders as he took in Duo's apparent lack of response with a confused expression. "Where's your mother?"
"She's gone," Heero said taciturnly, feeling Duo's response to his father's touch clearly as the silent boy's hand squeezed Heero's painfully.
Mr. Maxwell looked up from his son, suddenly realizing that Duo already had company. "Who are you?"
"He's my son," Odin said, placing himself at a very prominent place beside Duo, ready to step in at a moment's notice.
As a dark look of loathing developed on the elder Maxwell's face, Heero realized that whatever animosity his father bore for the man was returned as savagely. "Lowe, how very nice to see you," he replied, grounding out the words.
"The feeling is far from mutual." Turning his head towards Duo, he said in that soft, kind voice Heero cherished, "It's time to go."
Duo did not nod or respond in any way other than to pull away from his father's reach, letting the large hands on his shoulders fall. He quickly settled once more beside Heero, his arm against Heero's shoulder, his slight height advantage over Heero shrunken a bit by his lowered head.
Heero saw clearly the darkening look in Mr. Maxwell's as he noticed their joint hands. "Where are you taking him?" Mr. Maxwell nearly demanded, his pale features appearing heavier than usual.
"His grandmother's. You know the way, don't you Maxwell?" Odin replied, the dark tone returning, heavy with sarcasm. Heero knew this tone as well, and also knew exactly what it immediately lead to. "Of course you do. You've done some stunning things up there."
Heero's free hand grabbed his father's wrist, halting him from stepping completely in between the young men and the increasingly livid Mr. Maxwell. "Please, Father, let's go," he said in his quiet, nasally voice. To Mr. Maxwell, he said, "You're free to follow us, but it would be best if you visit Duo tomorrow. The flight was a long one."
Ignoring the cross expression on the man, he gave Duo's hand a comforting squeeze and said in his best broken common, "Coming?"
For a moment, he thought he saw the glimmer of gratitude, of need, of warm and positive feelings in Duo's eyes, but they were gone before Heero even knew they were there, leaving his expression as blank and devoid of emotion as it has been for the past three days. Only a light, returned squeeze was his answer.
"She wasn't meant to have died that way," Odin muttered to himself as he sat outside Helena's childhood home, smoking just outside the glow of the lone streetlight on that small patch of mountainside. The porch was well-lit, the stars were crowding the clear night sky, and the graveled open area between the house and the fields was filled with cars.
A lot of people had come tonight.
From his patch of darkness beyond the porch, he could almost discern the dark figures of his son and Helena's boy. They were walking, side by side, on the gravel road, heading uphill for no reason other than that was a perfectly fine direction to go.
Heero rarely talked as it was, and now, with Duo no where near as communicative as Helena always complained, it was almost painful for Odin to be near them and not try to break the silence.
The prayers the women were reciting over and over inside the large, one story house drifted on the cool, late summer breeze. The men, respecting the occasion, talked quietly on the porch, watching the small children and admonishing them if they were being too loud. All around, the night songs of the native frogs were loud and bright and unchanging.
The tears were falling from his eyes long before he noticed the wetness on his cheeks.
He was going to see her, that fall. He was going to start anew off-colony, like he hoped his son would. He was going to be with her again.
And now she was gone. Crushed by a car that was going too fast and lost control. Pinned between two tons of steel and an unyielding brick wall, not 20 feet from her front door.
His son told him this with his quiet, flat tone that night. Told him that she and Duo, not uncommonly, had a spat before he stormed off. Told him Duo hadn't spoken or shed a tear since returning home and finding an ambulance parked in his spot.
Odin choked back a sob, trying to wipe away at the hot tears, but they wouldn't stop. He knew stopping them would make the pain worse.
Perhaps he should tell Duo that.
Heero was awake long before sunrise, a habit that he apparently hadn't lost the whole time he had lived with Helena and her boy. By the time his father and grandfather were up, he had made the coffee and fed the chickens his grandfather still insisted on keeping.
"Had the bread man come by yet?" Odin said in greeting that morning, completely unfazed by his son's presence by the sink as he shuffled into the open living area, his face stubbly and his pale hair in disarray.
"Just now," Heero replied, pointing with his chin at the fresh long rolls, still in its paper sleeves, resting on the table.
Grunting his approval, Odin grabbed his toothbrush and the paste from the counter and walked out onto the porch. As he started brushing away the foul taste in his mouth, however, something, or rather someone, caught his eye.
"Heero?" he called into the house, the brush still in his mouth.
"Yes, Father?" Heero replied as he approached, a cup filled with water in his hand.
"Did you know Duo was here?" he asked, taking the offered cup before nodding his head towards the other boy's general direction. He was there, on their property, sitting on the white-washed glider swing Heero's late mother bought years before. There was no movement, and all Odin could make out was the boy's hunched figure, but there was no mistake as to who it was.
"Of course," Heero replied, looking instead as the expanse of green jungle that swallowed the mountains whole, just beyond the trimmed lawn. "I also bought donuts from the bread truck, if that's okay."
"You're going back with him, no doubt," Odin said, his mouth filled with white foam as he vigorously brushed away.
"If he's going back," his son admitted, his back as straight as Odin as always seen. "His grandmother talked to him last night about staying."
"Heero," Odin growled softly, his voice barely articulate with the brush still in his mouth.
"I promised him, Father." There was no escaping the determination on Heero's face. "I said I would be with him." His expression softened and developed a sadness as he continued. "Besides, it's still better for me off-colony, remember?"
That it still was, and Odin did not comment further.
After a moment, Heero walked off the porch towards the glider swing. Perhaps, in an hour or two, the boy's relatives will walk down the 500 meters of gravel road that separated Odin's family home from Helena's. Heero, leaning closed to Duo's lowered head, gently guided the other boy off the swing and towards the house. Perhaps tempting him with hot chocolate and the sugar-dusted donuts waiting in the kitchen. His son has never underestimated the power of comfort food.
His father, grumbling under his breath behind him, shuffled to a spot on the porch beside Odin. Looking out at the pair slowly making their way from the glider swing, the near-blind man harrumphed once more. "Seems that a lost puppy followed Heero home," the old man said as he prepped his own brush with the toothpaste.
"Certainly seems so."
Even at the burial, Duo hadn't uttered a sound.
Heero sat beside him as they were driven back up the mountain by one of Helena's brothers, a loud, dark man who was sniffling and trying to keep his tears at bay. The procession back to the mountain was a tad smaller than the one to the graveyard Ms. Helena was now buried away. In front of them was his father's car, which carried Duo's grandparents and Ms. Helena's two sisters. Behind them was Ms. Helena's other brothers as well one of her cousins.
At the very end of the five-car procession was Duo's father's car. He and two women Odin pointed to Heero out as his wife and his mother, had come to the funeral. Heero remembered clearly the dark look Mr. Maxwell had given the way they held hands at the airport, and wasn't surprised when the older of the women, wizened and bitter-looking, glared at him with true loathing.
Despite the looks Ms. Helena's family as well as Heero's father was giving the trio, they had insisted on following them back. Perhaps they wished to speak to Duo, after failing to do so over the last few days.
As expected, Mr. Maxwell barely waited for his car to stop before cutting off his engine and rushing towards them, even as his wife and his mother stayed inside the small, four-cylinder coupe. Heero could see the worry roll into Duo's eyes like a slow fog.
"Duo," he nearly shouted, a loud, frightening sound in the midst of the mourning. "Pack your things and let's go."
"Where are we going," Heero said as the large man barreled to a stop in front of them, irritated slightly that the man as ignored his presence once again.
"This doesn't concern you, boy," Mr. Maxwell said as he grabbed his son's upper arm and tried to wrestled him away from Heero. As if he would let that happen.
Almost immediately, Odin and Ms. Helena's very formidable brothers surrounded them. Behind Mr. Maxwell, he could see the rest of Ms. Helena's family surrounding them, being sucked into the scene. "I suggest you back away now, Maxwell," Odin said, his voice a dangerous rumble that formed in the back of his throat.
"He is my son and he is coming with me," the man practically bellowed, yanking one more time at Duo's arm, making him the quiet, unresponsive prize in their tug of war.
"He's not going anywhere, especially not without me," Heero said in his low voice, hoping he drew as much rumbling menace into his words as his father had.
The man's head jerked back to Heero, his eyes narrowing behind his tinted glasses. "And I bet I know why," Mr. Maxwell said with a sneer. "Oh, I know all about you, Heero Yuy," he said, his face turning even more vicious as Heero's eyes widened in fear.
"I know all about you and your tendencies. The reason why your father moved back up to this mountain, and you were sent off-colony. Oh, yes," he sneered, pressing close to Heero, pushing him backwards a step, "I asked around, and you would be surprised at all the interesting stories about you." Mr. Maxwell lowered his head towards Heero in a threatening, leering manner as he whispered, "Bet you can't wait till my son fucks you like the little fag-whore you are."
He wasn't certain who moved first. As Odin's fist connected to Mr. Maxwell's jaw, Heero pulled away from Duo's hand. But, as Mr. Maxwell stumbled away, letting go of his grip on Duo's arm, Duo's hand gripped on Heero's hand, not letting him step away.
Confused, he turned to look at Duo's face, yet he found nothing outside the blank unresponsiveness.
He felt a hard, bony hand gently fall on his shoulder. "I suggest you go, Solo," Duo's grandmother said in a steely tone from behind him. "Your mother seems to be having a heart-attack."
Biting back another angry retort, he wiped at his lips and glared at them. "I'm not leaving without my son." he said, stumbling a bit on his feet.
"I'm not leaving with you," Duo quietly muttered, slowly looking up at his father. "I'm staying here."
"Duo," Mr. Maxwell started, only to be forced to find his response on Duo's back as he walked into the house, dragging Heero behind him.
"Go, Maxwell," he heard one of Ms. Helena's uncles said as he was led to one of the bedrooms.
"Duo," he said softly, trying to coax some more words out of Duo, but as he pulled him to sit on the made bed, no explanation was forthcoming.
Mr. Maxwell's exit was a roar of wheels mercilessly crushing gravel.
It was then that Duo's tears began to finally fall.